The SRK Interview: Shah Rukh Khan on 'Raees' success, playing the bad guy and getting compartmentalised!

Shah Rukh Khan's Raees released last Wednesday and has shattered a few records already. The film has turned out to be a money churner at the box office and has raked in over Rs 90 crore in 5 days flat. When we meet SRK at a suburban studio, he's happy and is joined by his tiny tot AbRam. While SRK's busy giving video interviews, the little munchkin is busy playing around with SRK's team, who are more like his friends. He has the musical sword and the gun and laughs every time after pressing the music button on the sword. 

We watch and soon, SRK comes out to finish our interview. Sitting just outside his van, sipping on his cup of coffee, we begin our chat. From talking about the box office success to explaining why getting compartmentalised isn't anything new to him, SRK bares his heart out in this interview. Read on -

When you play a bad guy, is it tricky to make him more appealing so that the audience loves him despite all the wrongdoing?
No yaar. If the story telling is from a point of view of whichever character - good or bad, you will take his or her reasons for doing what he or she does. There's always going to be a point of view which we will try to show in the film. And if you are making an honest film, you leave it open. You will never say whether it's a good thing to do or a bad thing. It's up to you to decide. So I think no, it's not tricky at all. 

In a recent interview, you said that you have rejected a lot of gangster films in the past because you didn't believe in them...
(Cuts in) No, I didn't say that. I said that it was based on real people. And yes, if you take a person who, you also feel awkward portraying a point of view which may justify his means or his way of working and I don't agree with it, I wont do it. Raees is about a fictional character, this is based on fiction. I'm okay with that. But yes, if there's a real character who is a bad guy and you need to portray his story, being an actor, I don't think I have an issue. But being the star that I am with people loving me so much, for me too apart from what I do now, I think it becomes a reservation and a concern. I would not do it. 

You had earlier told us that people don't really offer you good action roles. With Raees working well, do you expect that to change?
I don't think anybody in this country has any reservation of casting me in any role. I am saying this because I meet a lot of directors everyday. But you know everybody has to make the films they do. I also have to be in the state of mind to choose the film that I do. So Raees came along after Happy New Year and I was in that state of mind that I wanted to do it. But I don't think there's a demarcation that you can only give me this role. It's very nice that I am compartmentalised as the lover boy. Now, I will be compartmentalised as the boy who does the bad guy roles (Smiles). But I am actor yaar so whatever I get, I don't think there is any director who has ever come to me and told me, 'You know I have this great film but I cannot cast you'. Maybe age or stage, you may not. But not otherwise! There will be a similar amount of films that will be offered to me. I have one with Imtiaz now and then with Aanand Rai. Let's see what I get next and what I feel interested in. But I don't think anyone will start giving me action roles more or less romantic roles. If Karan is making a movie and wants to cast me, he will make a Karan Johar kind of a film. If Imtiaz is making, if Anurag Kashyap is making a film, he can cast me. I am sure any director can approach me and I meet them all. They are very keen to cast me because they feel I can play out those roles. 

Raees has taken a big opening. Does it make you happy because it's also proof of the fact that so many people have watched it already?
I don't want to sound pompous but it's true that there is so much love for me that most of my films do take a very big opening. That is the first stage. So that relevance is done now. But what matters is something I have understood already. I can feel films. I don't have to understand or count the numbers. I don't have to fight for numbers. Like Dear Zindagi doesn't have the numbers, compared to what my films should have. But you feel the film and you know it's love and that makes you happier. Similarly, in this film, I can feel and sense the love already. And the numbers will follow. There's no question of it not bringing really huge numbers. I don't want to dwell on that. Today, will be a good day because families will go. For me, the emotional content of the film is extremely important too in a film like this. I think they are going to connect with it and I can already sense it. So yeah, the feeling is fantastic right now but it's not because of the numbers. It's because of the feeling that I can sense already. 

Whenever you do a serious film, people question your box office stability and when you make a masala movie, they question your acting prowess. Does that bother you?
There's a rule in life which at th age of 50, I can philosophise and tell you. When people don't understand you or you are beyond the understanding of people - for whatever reasons  and not just being good or intelligent - they need to make sense of you by putting you in a compartment that they understand. So the compartmentalising of me is according to the understanding of what people want to understand of me. Not because of who I am. As long as they will compartmentalise me, they will never understand me. And that's the nicest thing about being an actor. Nobody knows who I am, nobody knows what I can be but just because you don't know that, you don't realise my unknown. Just to make yourself comfortable, you say, 'Arre, loverboy hai yaar!' and you compartmentalise. I am beyond their understanding as an artist, I would like to believe that and that's the happiest place to be. 

Lastly, have you even watched Raees yet?
Uh hmm, no! (Smiles) But I would like to watch it. I was busy on Saturday and Sunday. So Monday or Tuesday, I would like to watch it for sure.