At the promotions of his forthcoming film Fan, Shah Rukh Khan explains how the movie required special VFX and 3D effects and how a film like this usually takes three years but the team made it in one and a half years.By Arjita Mishra
If it is a promotional event for a movie, it is no unknown fact that the star actor run late. And Shah Rukh Khan is no exception either. But what sets him apart is his ability to make up for every minute spent in his wait. He will cheer up the crowd with his antics, make some passing witty comment, wave at random people from the audience anything and everything to make it up to his fans. And we cannot wait for his next, Fan.
In the city for the promotions, he revealed that while he has a million fans across the world, he is a fan of his kids. He was in the mood to elaborate, “The kind of unconditional love a fan has for his or her star, I have that for my kids. Although I feel a fan’s love tend to become obsessive at times and I want to tell the youth to not harm themselves in the process of loving someone. But the selfless, one-sided love that the fans have, I harbour for my kids.”
But his youngest, AbRam is his fan at home. “I think because of my antics and behaving stupidly and playing a lot at home, AbRam likes me a little more. I could be presumptuous though. There’s his mother, two siblings and my sister but I have a feeling that he is inclined a little more towards me,” he justified with a hearty laugh.
Even though he adores all the attention he receives from his fans, he confessed that he has never been one himself. “I have not been a fan. I like people, but I have never been a fan. I became a star before I could be a fan. Becoming a fan is a luxury — you have to love someone selflessly. I never had that luxury. I started working at a very young age, so I just didn’t get time to be a fan. I was just too distracted,” he laughed.
It is evident from the promos who the characters are and what the story might be like — a story of a superstar Aryan Khanna and his obsessed, lookalike fan, Gaurav. We asked the star how different the movie was going to be and he said, “It has become a habit of actors to say that the film is different and unique. But the idea that Maneesh has thought of, is really quite unique and I think hasn’t been used before. It’s an emotional thriller.” He paused to pick up some pop-corn and continued, “The characters are mostly based in Delhi and Noida and I think Delhi people can relate to them.”
During the conversation he shared that it took the team more than a year to complete the film because the script demanded high quality VFX. “It would not have been possible to make the film six years ago because such technology was not available. See, it is very easy to make someone look older but its tough to make someone look younger. To do all that stuff one needs high quality VFX and 3D clean up. Hollywood has tried it, but a full length film takes three years and we did it in one and a half years, and that, too, for the first time,” Khan explained.
He is not a stranger to the director Maneesh Sharma, having worked with him in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, where Sharma was the AD. But it is for the first time that Sharma has directed Khan, who feels that young directors come up with new ideas and don’t hesitate to experiment because they have nothing to lose. “Also, success leads you on to where you just want to retain that success. I am not saying you kill your creativity, but you try to wrap your creativity around the success. New people have much less to lose. Very few people, like Yash Chopra, keep on making edgy stuff. His subjects were different. The young guys have some nice ideas,” the actor pointed out.
When asked how would he define a star, Khan named Amitabh Bachchan and Dilip Kumar. According to him, “A star is a person who when he walks, people become quiet and let him pass. I have seen this happening only with two people Dilip saab and Amitji. So, I think a star is able to invoke a certain sense of respect and dignity and love from people which makes the whole crowd go hush and silent. I think that’s the real star.”
The actor thinks that the social media has helped to minimise the distance between a celebrity and fans. “The proximity between stars and fans has increased. One does not need to depend on other media and can directly interact with the admirers. The way our country is progressing and we are dealing with technology, somewhere down the line, there is no hierarchy,” Khan said.
As we all know that biopics are the latest trend in Bollywood, Khan thinks that his life is not much interesting to make a film on it. When asked about the idea behind his biopic, he said, “I want Sachin Tendulkar to play me. I don’t know if my life is interesting enough to be made into a film. All the biopics are wonderful and colourful lives. I don’t know if I am that good enough.”