Wit beyond measure is a man’s greatest treasure and it is true for a man like Shah Rukh Khan. He doesn’t believe in mincing words and there is hardly a time you’d see him not exploit his sense of humour. You know it is him when girls go speechless, a gentle smile greets you and the first words you hear are those of gratitude. That is exactly what happened when King Khan walked up the ramp to unveil the Tag Heuer Carrera Calibre 1887 Chronograph — Jack Heuer special edition, at its 50th anniversary recently.
There are many things said about the man when it comes to his attitude. He announces his kingdom openly and even throws his weight around, but he definitely knows how to get his way around with ladies. That is why when he locked his eyes with the host for the evening, Mandira Bedi, there was nothing stopping his clever wordplay. “I worked with Mandira 19 years ago in Dilwale Dhulaniya le Jayenge and it was her first film. Through my career, I’ve had the fortune of falling in love with a lot of ladies on screen. But she’s the only one whose heart I’ve broken,” he said and it was enough.
Khan has been associated with Tag Heuer since his Baazigar days and he recalled them efficiently. He shared, “As a young child I remember reading these big fat novels to find porn. However, failing at that attempt, I would come across a few words I found difficult to pronounce and one of them was ‘tag’. The coolest thing was that there was a villain in one of the books who was wearing a Tag Heuer watch during the climax. I was really impressed by that. So, when I went to New York right after Baazigar, I wanted to buy this Tag Heuer watch. The watch was priced at an exorbitant price and all I had was $250 to shell out. luckily the shopkeeper was an Indian and he looked at me and got really excited that I was the one he saw in Baazigar. So he said forget it just give me the $250 and take the watch.” Even as he said that he took a moment out to entertain the audience. “At that time, I was a middle class boy and this was the best thing ever. Now I’m just a rich capitalist pig who has gold taps in his bathroom. I’m a king,” he quipped.
To launch the special edition model of the watch, Indian racing driver Karun Chandhok and general manager Frank Dardenne joined SRK on stage. Making fun of Frank’s accent, SRK couldn’t refrain himself from mimicking his description of the watch. He said, “This watch is ambidextrous, which, I have been made to understand, means that it can be worn on the right and left hand. I wouldn’t know since Frank hasn’t given me a new one. This time I’ve not worn a watch so that he doesn’t have an excuse not to give it to me.”
To make the evening entertaining Karun and SRK had a face off where they asked each other questions about their respective fields in a competition to win the watch. While Karun asked Khan easy questions regarding racing, SRK challenged Karun by asking him names of his films.
When asked about his interest in direction, the actor got upset. “Don’t you people want to see me actIJ Direction is such a lonely job. I want to keep acting. The day I get sick of acting or start acting very badly, I’ll direct,” he commented.