Mumbai: The hearts of legions of girls have gone aflutter when Shah Rukh Khan gyrated atop a train or swayed to the beats while flashing his toned abs. But the best dancer in the Khan household, he believes, is undoubtedly the youngest member, AbRam. “AbRam has a favourite step,” he says, and show us how it’s done. “So we wake up every morning and do that step. It fits every song; Lungi Dance, Chamak Challo, anything that we want to dance to will be met with this super move,” he says, before doing it again.
While AbRam may “head” the dance department in the Khandaan, his brother Aryan is not all that enthused about it. Shah Rukh laughs and says, “I think Aryan will beat me up if I ask him to dance!”
Although the superstar admits he is a rather dreadful dancer, his career has been replete with films that have seen him do more than just shake a leg.
With Happy New Year all set for release, Shah Rukh is also returning to television, this time as a judge on Zee TV’s dance reality show Dil Se Naachien Indiawaale with his HNY team. Even as the actor disses his dance skills, he reveals that his first role during theatre days was ironically that of a dancer. He says, “The first time Barry John cast me, it was not as an actor but as a dancer. I was the principal dancer. I had just one line: ‘Annie I have a letter for you’. Through the rest of the play I was just dancing!”
Shah Rukh reminisces about his first song shoot of his career. It was choreographed by the legendary Saroj Khan for the film King Uncle. “We were shooting for Is Jahan Ki Nahin Hai Tumhari Aankhen. Sarojji choreographed the song and I couldn’t do the dipping part of the dance. Eventually Rakeshji (Roshan) put me on a cycle so I don’t have to dance much. Every night after the shoot, there was this group who would sing Raj Kapoor’s songs in South Africa, in Hindi. We used to feel happy and dance with them, and I kept practising dipping. Once I learnt it, for my next 22 films I did only that — dipping! Today I am the world’s best dipper,” he muses.
SRK credits actress Amrita Singh for letting him on a little secret that would keep those with two left feet in very good stead. “Amrita gave me this advice during my Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman days. She said, ‘Just be happy and it will seem as if you are dancing.’ For the last 20 years that has helped me because whenever I have danced, I have constantly thought that I’m happy.”
He confesses that he’s actually a poor judge. “I had once gone to judge a Miss India contest. I told Waheedaji (Rehman), who was also a judge at the competition, ‘Aap apne marks bata dejiye, main toh de nahi sakta, mujhe sab ladkiyan achchi lagti hai. (Tell me what you’re scoring them. I can’t do it because I like all the girls)’. Not just because they’re girls but just the fact that I can’t judge. I try to avoid judging shows; I’d rather just tell everyone they are doing well.”
If he is critical of his ability to judge, the actor is fully aware of the repeated criticism he’s received for his perceived preference for commercial potboilers. “I have my own production house but we make films according to the director’s vision. I have done serious films like Swades, Paheli, Chak De India and Asoka. When Swades released many people asked why the film is so serious.
No romance or anything. I try to balance both kinds of films. As for the number of films I do, a HNY for instance takes 150 days for the shoot. I was supposed to shoot for Fan immediately after that but then I had five days of shooting left for HNY. So I pushed the dates of Fan. I like to complete a film whether it requires 40 days or 140 days and only then begin the next one because then you are more focused. If a film takes 40 days, I can do four films a year but films like Chennai Express and HNY take up half a year. There’s really no rule about how many films I will do in a year,” he clarifies.
