SEPT 27- “I am the funniest bit of fun you can have in your life,” Shah Rukh Khan declares with the trademark blend of wit and smugness during a trip to the city on Thursday.
The superstar was in town to deliver the keynote address of the Ruby jubilee convention of the All India Management Association (AIMA), his theme being success. Clearly, he was in the mood for banter.
“I feel scared addressing this extraordinary mass of grey matter. So many big brains are here and all you guys can manage to get is a Bollywood star. The economy must really be in a bad state,” he quipped with a straight face.
“For me, the experience is mind boggling but I can barely say c-c-c-c-corporation,” he said, drawing reference to his famous K-K-K-K-Kiran punchline in Darr. He had a smart one on the speech itself. “Let me forewarn you, this speech is a recycle.
I deliver it whenever I go for such events. It is generic, simple and makes no commitment – much like your corporate world.” Addressing the subject at hand, SRK felt successful people can never explain how they succeeded. “Success is wonderful but it cannot be explained.
My father was the most successful failure I have seen. Some of my earliest hits were rejected by others – Deewana by Arman Kohli, Baazigar by Salman Khan and Darr by Aamir Khan. I remember Dilip Kumar telling me why he did Devdas – ‘Bimal (Roy) da ek lakh de rahe the, toh kar liya’. So, success just happens and then we take credit for it.”
Rather, failure is important to SRK. “Failure happens out of fear and it is your response to failure that pushes you to succeed. I am scared of losing. It makes me work hard for 18 to 20 hours a day.” He jokes how success and winning friends have no connection. “I lost a lot of friends after Ra.One. Post Chennai Express, I am happy to tell you, I didn’t make any new friends.
But I have made a lot of new enemies.” By the time the house is thrown open for questions, the august audience is behaving like star-struck teenagers.
Girls want to be on the stage, “touch” him, while one man wants him to do the Lungi Dance for his mother back home in Kashmir. SRK obliges all, his parting shot intact: “Thank you for making me who I am.
As long as I can keep doing my Lungi Dance, I’ll manage to keep you happy.”
INDIA TODAY
