Address by Shah Rukh Khan, Film Actor, Producer & TV Anchor

'Don’t use His name as an excuse to kill each other'

I would request everyone, please don’t look serious, it makes me so nervous. This is definitely not the kind of place I would like to be in. I am normally used to naked women around me, dancing to something as wonderfully intellectual as Love mera hit hit soniye. I am an artiste or I like to believe I am a kind of an artiste. We deal with situations and a lot of people. We hopefully take them to a different world and that is important now. I would like to make a few points, I don’t know if I will stick to the topic. We are living in an uncertain world. This uncertainty exists, whether we sleep in Mumbai, or in Delhi, in Jerusalem, Teheran or in Kabul, where most of our brothers and sisters hardly get any sleep at all.

This evening as we think of art, religion, peace and hatred, let us keep these sleep-deprived friends in our hearts and in our minds because honestly, we all are in the same boat. I was unwell on November 26 when Mumbai was attacked and I had a video conference with my Kolkata Knight Riders’ coach in Australia. I cancelled it. Some were fortunate, some were not. And quickly after the incident, we made our walls higher, had more security at the gate, had more dogs but one thing that became very evident is this—there’s no hiding place for any of us. We are all entirely vulnerable.

This, of course, is a new situation. It makes us appreciate in a fresh way how art can make a difference in our lives in the midst of uncertainty around us. I believe a little pessimistically; that it won’t go away very soon. First, what is it about art that grabs us and focuses our attention? There are many ways in which all forms of art catch us and attract our attention. Art attracts us because of the riveting new patterns, textures, colours, notes or rhythms or the shades of light and dark. The immovable shapes of Gopi Kishan or Astad Deboo, the sound of the great A.R. Rahman, the art of M.F. Husain, the performances of the great Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan.

It also grabs us because of the association of moods and the feelings deep inside us that come surging forth when we are exposed to the art form of our choice. And the third way it grabs us is the most subtle and subjective but perhaps the most important—beauty. Beauty is ineffable. It cannot be pinned down but like love, beauty totally dominates all our faculties and it won’t let go. So, like love, I don’t know where beauty comes from but I know when I see it. Beauty mesmerises me. Beauty can be present in man-made work of art or in nature, in a painting or a symphony, a ballet or in a single flower, a horse or a mist-covered mountain.

So how does art relate to uncertainty, hatred, pain and loss? I think it relates simply and directly and very importantly. An encounter with a work of art transforms us; for a period of time it takes us out of an unavoidable condition of fear and uncertainty. Art does not stop violence, sickness or war but art takes us to a new place, a totally different time and perspective. Art doesn’t change the bad situation but art can change us, turn us around, give us a new sense of freedom where we can breathe a space that won’t last forever but can so deeply refresh us that we are able to re-enter the battle of uncertainty and hatred knowing that pain and terrible things are not the only reality, God’s great creation contains both good and bad, love and hatred, beauty and loss, suffering and joy. So perhaps the first trick to living is to recognise, not deny, the presence and power of both darkness and light through life.

The second trick to living is to negotiate a path between the forces of light and darkness so we don’t stumble. And the third trick teaches us if we do fall down, as we probably will many times, just get up and start over and keep going. So, art plays this crucial role of recharging us, to keep walking on life’s uncertain path of hatred. My topic is not just about art and hatred but about religion. I think you will all agree with me that a lot of uncertainties and hatred that we see around the world is linked directly or indirectly to the manifestation of religious viewpoints, misinterpretations and just plain misreading and misguidance. I got all these on the Internet, the thoughts are of other people but I truly feel them. A gentleman in Japan has said art is the mother of religion because the root word of religion stems from the Latin word ‘religare’, which means unifier.

Works of art and beauty in nature are awakeners and stimulators that satisfy the deepest of our emotions. Religion is the overall connector of all the different pieces of life, sometimes contradictory, sometimes good and sometimes bad. All are subjective preferences in one universal peaceful whole. Have you ever made a choice in appreciating a piece of art? Do you like it or dislike it because it was done by a Hindu or a Muslim? When I was young, I didn’t say I’m not listening to Michael Jackson because he is of Christian faith. And wow, it sounds good because he is now Mikhail.

I am very sorry if there are some Americans here. It is not the most popular nation in the world but my son’s superheroes come from there, even if they happen to be lazy, drunk African-Americans Hancocks. The ipl may not be an art form but an entertainment platform just like all art forms are supposed to be, I think. And it has players from all countries, sharing dressing rooms and playing for six hours together and, for God’s sake, even if it sounds a little pompous, I have been one of the leading stars of the country for the last 20 years. A Muslim by birth, I am Islamic by faith and supposedly a big star in a supposedly Hindu-dominated nation.

So, that speaks volumes about how easily we accept art without religion coming into it. So what happened to our great unifier of differences along the way? What happened to our religions? When did the bells start tolling in temples and in churches? When did the azaans from the minarets and the chants of the Buddhists, when did the Jewish story-telling and the African drums start to play music of such discord? When did the teachings of Mother Art fail in its education to its Child Religion? It actually happened because you and I believe that peace is the cessation of war, the stopping of terrorism and armed conflict between nations, banning chemical warfare. I think we have all been wrong. This is the human version of peace.

God’s version of peace is the beauty you feel when you see a pleasant sight or a picture of misty mountains, it’s the emotion you feel when you hear the music of rivers and birds or a Sufi poem, it is the love that you experience when you listen to the stories of saints and believers at the satsangs that many of you may be attending. That peace is art.

That peace resides in art. It is art with intense riveting directness that is the key to open a deep emotional appreciation of each different faith, tradition that can reach all our lives. Allah, the most merciful, the most gracious, did not sanction wars, holy or otherwise. Bhagwan kripalu hai, dayalu hai mukti dilate hain, mandir aur masjid nahin torwata hai (God is merciful and kind. He helps you attain enlightenment. He does not make you destroy temples and mosques.) The Bible taught us to offer the other cheek if somebody slaps one of yours. Not another crusade.

God gave us art as a means to peace, to overcome hatred and live in harmony.Unfortunately, art will not be able to control this hatred now. It’s going to take a long time for it to settle, or maybe destroy us all in trying to do so. The uncertainty will not go away but art does give us in all its colours a chance to see the brighter and beautiful side of life. I think we should choose it as a lifestyle before it is too late, or at least keep using it to divert ourselves for a few moments to handle the hatred around us. I would like to leave you with a sad scene.

Mother Art is weeping looking at its Child Religion, its child following the path of hatred and the Father God is trying to give peace, beauty and love a chance. Let us kill each other because we want to but please stop using His name as an excuse. Now this is a picture as a Hindi film artiste I want to leave you with. I hope a lot of people will understand it and go to see it. I hope it is a superhit. I will be very happy as a film star if somebody understands it and, of course, if I am on the cover of India Today.

I’ll just tell you some of the new things I have learnt today before I go and sit down there. I didn’t know what conclave means. The closest I came to it is that I used to live in Safdarjung Enclave when I was in Delhi. So conclave? It is a party where everybody sits, smiles and jokes. Thank you very much for introducing me to the word ‘conclave’. I thank your sponsors the Aditya Birla Group. See, I am looking for sponsors for my Kolkata Knight Riders. Thank you very much. Have a great life.

Q&A with Shah Rukh Khan

Q. Can art overcome hate?
Khan: I want to clarify. This is the wrong speech; this is the Dalai Lama’s speech on peace and religion. I don’t know if art is so powerful a tool that it can overcome hatred. I don’t think hatred can be overcome so easily. It would be too Utopian to paint some pictures, sing some songs, do some music and say, ‘Aaj se hum khoon karna bandh kar denge, hum bure kaam karna bandh kar denge (from today, we will stop killing people and stop all bad deeds). I don’t think it will happen. But I truly believe that somehow you start to appreciate the finer things.

When I say art, I do really mean nature itself. I think none of us can duplicate that in our wildest dreams. I think that it is an art form itself. We need to respect nature. We need to respect life. If you respect everyone else’s life as you do your own, then art may be able to overcome hatred. Your kind of artistic films, no. Cinema is an art form that is accepted globally. But definitely within the film fraternity, that we paint as a big happy family, do we really mean it? Within the parameters of our industry, or fraternity, there is a certain sense of hatred.

Q.  The talk is about the lack of love rather than hate.
Khan: Because our art form gets talked about so much, gets splashed around so much, it sort of affects you also. The good thing is that it makes you feel pompous, proud like a superstar. It becomes so amazingly public that competition does tend for us to get personal at times, but I don’t think it becomes hatred. We all have one thing in common. As frivolous, as funny, as strange and as weird and sometimes over-the-top cinema might be, actors and actresses might be, we know that the bottom line is a lot of hard work, a lot of passion and it is also temporary like life. We recognise that and within that little frame of time that we get, some of us are lucky to get 20 years, some of us are not. But we want to do as much creativity of our kind as possible which will lead to an edgier competitive spirit. I don’t think it leads to hatred. Hatred is too strong a word.

Q. Because of the position you have reached, there is a ripple effect of that, not hatred but envy, maybe. Coming back to your superstar status, Shah Rukh, you are the 41st most popular man in the world largely because of your iconic Islamic status. What happens when you hear that? What is your perception of that statement?
Khan: Because of our upbringing and because of what we have been taught, by our parents and the books, we all respect our faith and religion. I am a Muslim; I am also a modern Muslim. This iconic status that was given to me is quite important. I take it very seriously. And I hope somehow through my work, the way I speak about Islam, through the kind of things that I do... Yes, I am frivolous, I joke, but I am a deep-thinking person. I hope that youngsters in this country take a cue from what I do.

I am pompous and self-obsessed enough to say that I have done many sorts of good things to be recognised as an icon, an Islamic icon. I think people need to understand Islam from a modern point of view. They need to understand that being a Muslim is not a bad thing. I am doing a film with Karan Johar called My Name is Khan, which deals with the subject. My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist. I think these are the issues I can comment on.

My knowledge of Islam may not be the best but I can comment on a deep-rooted sense of good thinking and good feeling and not because of the status given by Newsweek. But I am proud of it, yes. I also think I am an Islamic icon and youngsters should take some sort of teaching from my work and through the things that I say. Hopefully, it will give them a better understanding of their own religion, their life. I love it when young people come forward and work hard and do it, with a lot of edge, with a lot of gusto and power. And because now I have children, I have started taking this role even more seriously. Because I want to teach my children the right thing. I want this country to be proud of my kids also. I have more or less done the right things. This is a great platform to spread the word of righteousness, Islam and being an icon, being a movie star. With the right spirit I would like to do it.

Q. Do you feel like doing something about it through your art form? Despite your superstar status, you might have been vulnerable, being a part of the minority religion?
Khan: I would like to, though I still hold the belief that the entertainment that I provide is basically for entertainment. Within it if I can somehow hide a little message of the things that I believe in, it is nice. But it should not overtake the entertainment. A lot of people disagree with me. A lot of people say, ‘No, your films should always say good messages’. Messages are for the post office, films are for entertainment. The work that I do should make me feel happy. Genuinely, my job here today is to talk about a serious topic. I take and understand the seriousness of it. But my job is also mainly to entertain all of you. I am an artiste. So I would like to do it through my work. But I would not like it at this stage. I am 43, I don’t think at this stage of my career I would like my thoughts, my beliefs to overtake the entertainment value of  my films. I am being very honest.

I have done a few films like Chak De! India and I believe in sports and so I have done it. Maybe the choices that you make in the films that you do, I think do reflect the kind of beliefs you have. I don’t know what belief Om Shanti Om reflects, though.

Q. Reincarnation?
Khan: Dard-e-disco. Maybe the sense of fun and enjoying life. The choices that I make in films do reflect my beliefs. The film I am making, My Name is Khan, is the most important film that I have done in my 20-year career. I don’t know the fate of that film. But we are still making it. And I think, yes through my work, maybe later on, I’ll try to do that even more. At this stage I try as much as I can, but I don’t spend sleepless nights over it.

Q. Isn’t it frustrating? You have achieved so much. You are revered globally, nationally and yet when it comes to the release of one of your films, you have to drop your title because of certain pressures? You have to drop the word ‘barber’ and call a film just ‘Billu’ because a certain community, a certain organisation objects. Certain people who might for no rhyme or reason suddenly come in the week of the release and cause mayhem in your creative existence?
Khan: If I was younger, yes, it would be disturbing, but now I have started to understand and I would like everyone to think about it when they go home. Why are we becoming so impatient? I can’t understand it at all. Is the world moving so fast? That’s why we have to keep up with it? We are impatient in everything. I think we have too much information which is available through the Internet, through all the channels. I think we are just getting so many things so fast, I think everybody has started believing, there is access to so much visibility via the media now that you can have your 15 minutes of fame. And I wish 15 minutes of fame to everybody in this world, to the six billion-odd people that live in this world. I think it is beautiful to be famous. But I think you need to do it in a more deserving way.

When I think of this level of impatience, I think it is lack of education. I don’t know enough about things. I overreact and sit on a mobike and throw a kerosene bomb at my house. Because you misunderstood the song. The song was “Rab ke hazoor mein…duniya ke…”, which means in the presence of God, I have done the regular things that people do, still I have never found someone as beautiful as you. And someone has misread it as ‘rab ke hazoor ne’. And have thought that we are talking about the great Prophet Mohammed. And I have said it is completely wrong. You never even heard it and you decided to take  action.

I think somewhere this impatience, this desire to get 15 minutes of fame and of course this lack of education needs to be looked at. When you come to think about it, we should all realise that it is just a movie, not a controversial subject that a lot of communities or religions or sects are going to have a problem with. It’s a film about a hairdresser. I am scared. I haven’t said the word ‘barber’ any more. I am having a repressed childhood, or repressed middle-age.

Q. Do you think that this matter has to be taken up and there should be a voice from the industry to say that censorship should be the final destination of a filmmaker?
Khan: I think so. The censor board requires another committee. If something comes up, the committee needs to face it, talk it out, work it out. If you have passed it, you have passed it. If someone passed a sex scene or a word, it’s passed. The censor board, I guess was made for this. If someone has a problem, they should address it to the board. Not wait for Thursday evening and hold you to ransom.

Q. There was this big divide in our country about the movie Slumdog Millionaire. It met with huge international success. But in India there were two opinions. You have been called upon at the Golden Globes and even at our own award functions to talk about Slumdog, for some reason they believe….
Khan: That I am a slumdog.

Q. Yes, you are a slumdog.
Khan: I am a dog at least.

Q. Well, even that you cannot say. 
Khan: Manekaji will get angry. Sorry, I am joking, please don’t put me in jail for this. 

Q. What are your thoughts on Slumdog...? Are you very happy for the movie?
Khan: I see art forms as art forms. Some people have issues. But let me tell you, I think Indian filmmakers have been trying to sell the wrong things. They are selling glamour and cool-looking guys, ‘dard-e-disco’ and stuff like that. There is a misconception in the western world maybe and we have to accept it, that it is really nice to think India is poor and has slums. We have them, it isn’t untrue. And the western world likes us to show that. You take me to a film on Brazil, I would like to see soccer; you show me a Japanese, Chinese film without kung fu, I am sorry, I don’t like it. I am Danny Boyle’s dear friend and I love the film. I have started becoming more gracious, because I didn’t do it, I feel bad about that. I saw the Brazilian film City of God and that was my concept of Brazil. I have never been to Brazil, but you have these poor kids with machine guns and drugs and cocaine and that’s how I want to see Brazil. It’s a great film.

About India also, this concept of India Shining and economy and development, growth rate; there is still this misconceived notion, or preconceived thought that has got set. We guys do stereotypes. Maybe India in the eyes of the Western cinematic world is a stereotype for poverty. I think it was shot very well. And it looked great. And I haven’t seen such good looking poverty in India. It was really richly done. That is appealing, people like it. We should not have an issue with it.

I think the issue we should have is when an Indian filmmaker, with an Indian script, which includes you and a lot of us, when is he going to be proud of the poverty of this country. I cannot be proud of my country if I am going to be proud of only the big buildings, the big economic growth. I have to be proud of everything and talk about it to the rest of the world with as much pride as I do with the good things also.

When is an Indian filmmaker going to do a film, written by an Indian, about India and take it worldwide in the language of Hindi and even if you don’t understand it, you admire it and love it. I think that would be an artistic jump. And that is what we should be worried about, instead of why did they show our poverty better than we can? I don’t think we need to worry over that. I have no issues on that front at all.

Q. I can ask about recession but you won’t have anything to say.
Khan: Film recession. The solution is, cast me in the film, you’ll get lots of money, it’ll be a superhit, you’ll be recession proof like Lalit Modi is, from what I hear. I want to talk about brighter things. It’s the first time I am at the India Today Conclave. I don’t want it to be the last.

Q. We live in a troubled time, that’s no secret at the moment. Do you think by denying the immense power of art, in your case films, you are doing a disservice to society. You have a platform available to change the thought of an entire generation, you can change the way people dress, you surely have the way to change the way people think. But for some reason in your 20-year career, you haven’t done that many films that could use that power efficiently?
Khan: Yes, I would like to believe what you are saying. I would like to believe that the job I am doing is as important as you think it is. I am being very honest. Since I started acting a long time ago, I have never thought of it as you said. Maybe younger people have started to think that way; maybe I have missed thinking like that. But, to change the way people dress is hugely different from the power to change the way people think.

I watch films to be able to escape from the problems that I had when I was young and even now. Maybe that is why I make an escapist kind of cinema. I never thought cinema was going to change my life. Maybe I should start thinking like that and I truly agree. Maybe it’s not too late even now. Maybe I have another 45 years of superstardom, number one position. I will try 100 per cent.

Q. This whole morning we have been talking about whether terror has a religion. What you can do is for all of us to talk beyond religion. It is important for India to move from religion to spirituality, which is about the cosmos, not related to our little minds. So that perhaps cinema and art could show the way from religion to spirituality.
Khan: At one level, I agree with what you say. I also think spirituality is a private thing. It has to come from within. It is a strange term. I have said this on a documentary that someone was shooting on me that I truly believe, acting to me is spiritual. I get into this strange sense of being where everything goes dark. And I say this honestly, obviously, when you see me on screen. A lot of critics don’t agree at all. I really do believe when I am given those lines, doing those shots. I am living in a world of spirituality. When I sense it like this, it is not just a means to make money, or just entertaining. And agreeing with Koel that yes, it’s a platform to do some other stuff. Spirituality is the way. But again if we start taking and reading the stuff spirituality, then we will have the same myopic view that we have for religion.

All of us in our own sense find individual spirituality. And I can assure you that this is the universal truth. It has to come from us and it has to be what be what we believe in, whatever we think is spirituality and get into this nice space. If we start making spirituality available to everyone, it is already available to us in books, then again it will myopic. It will be fantastic if we can do it through cinema. But if I do it through cinema, my spirituality may not work for you. It will stop being universal. But it’s a good thought. The only thing is that the film won’t be a hit. We’ll make no money.

Q. You just stated that we should be proud of our poverty? That seems a bit strange to me.
Khan: I don’t mean to keep letting it exist. I didn’t mean that. It is there. We can’t close our eyes and get disturbed if someone comes and shoots in our slums. I believe in spirituality, greatness and goodness and accepting the truth. The beauty of truth is that as soon as we accept it, it vanishes. The beauty of truth is that it makes the problem vanish. I think we need to accept the fact that there is poverty and then we do something to remove it. It’s high time. And I am talking in my aggressive tone. I would like to say I haven’t done much either. I think we need to accept that there is poverty and make the effort to make it vanish in the physical way and not the spiritual way only.

Q. Do you think it would help if Indian cinema stopped idealising poverty, whitewashing and showing it in a glamorous way?
Khan: Are we really talking about commercial cinema, the more used cinema in the country? Then I agree with Karan, it has never been used in that sense, that we have glamourised poverty. 

Q. You are a good Muslim but let’s say you were Shekhar Krishna. How do you perceive people would express their love, in terms of considering you an icon? Some people hate you. How would you perceive that? So if you were a Hindu, how would you see the reaction to you? Would you be the same or perceive differences?
Khan: Shekhar Radha Krishna. I don’t think there would be any difference. That’s the point I was trying to make. I have never been made aware through my profession, or otherwise, about religion, in this wonderful country. I find it strange when I hear it. I don’t think Aamir (Khan) has been made to feel any different or Salman (Khan) has been. Dilip sahab is Dilip sahab, whether he is Yusuf Khan or Dilip Kumar. I think artistes have this tendency to transcend. Art and artistes do have this tendency. You don’t really care who is from which community, what sect. You either like it or you don’t. I would still smell as sweet irrespective of the name you call me by.

Q. You mentioned making money and commercial cinema. There are a lot of corporates here. How do you perceive corporates entering films?
Khan: Some corporates have got into cinema. I think the corporate culture, correct me if I am wrong, is a western idea, a western thought and a wonderful thought. When you start using this concept in traditional industries, traditional jobs like iron and steel, even in finance, it works. You can use the services of an industry from abroad. But films are different. Indian films have never been international. They are not like minerals that are accepted abroad. I would like the corporates to come down and bring in the organisation, but I think it will be a different kind of a corporate culture.

Strangely, all big cinema houses are personality-driven whether it is Walt Disney or Yash Chopra. What you guys call a brand, we call a personality. It is important for people making cinema. The corporate culture is a little too cold, strangely for films. When I meet a corporate, they ask, ‘What are the returns on our film?’ I ask them, ‘Do you see the beauty of the mist in the mountain, do you see Sushmita Sen in a saree, do you see the yellow flowers?’ They say yes, ‘But we don’t see the money’. Cinema is a strange art form that is measured on the anvil of finance.

Normally, art is for art’s sake. But it is not good cinema for you or for me unless it is a hit. I make a good painting and you agree and we try to see it and we can’t and then we say it is not a good painting. How does it change the painting? I thought it was always beautiful. So, you make painting and take a call, that no one can make like it but I love it. Mr Raj Kapoor once said, ‘All the films of mine, which didn’t work, are like disabled children. That’s why I love them even more’. I doubt in a corporate boardroom the chairman will ever say this, ‘Let’s invest in this disabled child, let’s lose some money, guys’. It’s never going to happen.

Q. The youth dream of becoming film stars and cricket stars. How do you foresee their future and the future of the country? 
Khan: I think every youngster should be encouraged. All art forms have reached a level where they are commercially viable. The corporates are entering the movie world and they are doing a great job. It is a great business proposition. When I was young, everyone wanted to be a doctor. Girls wanted to be airhostesses. My aunt is in London, She has been a general practitioner for 35-40 years. She is educated and a successful doctor. My film Baazigar had just been released. I was 27 then when I went there and I met her. I was a big star. She said this is all very nice, but when are you starting your real work? I would like to point out that Karan Johar, Farhan Akhtar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali... some youngsters have brought in the culture. It’s great to be an actor now.

I would like my children to be actors. Not because they are my children. But just as a professional. And even more than that I want my daughter to be a sportswoman. I want my son to be one. I want him to be a soccer player. I come from a lower middle-class family. My parents were very nice and they quickly died also. So I didn’t have to take permission from them but I realise that there are 1.2 billion people in this country and only 11 will be chosen to play cricket. There is a huge competitive level here. And we don’t have enough platforms for sports.

A lot of hatred would reduce if we were sportsmen. Because it does teach us to be sportsman-like, teaches us sportsman spirit, teaches us to lose but not be losers. And when we are growing up and are impressionable, like terrorists are, these guys lose a couple of times and forget losing is not the same as becoming a loser. These kids are becoming losers. Sports will teach them not to become losers. It’s important.  

Q. Have you ever been criticised by Muslim hardliners for being a moderate Muslim? How do you react to them?
Khan: Not yet. I am careful about that. I am a good actor. I have read the Quran in the language that I understand now. I read it when I was a child. And I have never spoken about Islam in any derogatory or wrong manner. I only speak about Islam in the word of the Quran. Sometimes I say couple of things and people get a little disturbed and say, ‘Janab yeh nahin bolna chahiye tha (you shouldn’t have said this). I try to explain it, reason it out. I’m not unreasonable. I’ll not make a statement about Islam just because it sounds good. I think it is the most wonderful religion.

I am a Muslim. It’s fantastic to be me. I think and I am sure it is as fantastic as to be a Hindu, a Christian. I think there’s some confusion between faith and religion. Faith means different practices of same things. Religion being one, this is a different faith. Islam is a faith. You have to accept that we will practice things differently. Why is it that I can eat Italian food, French food, you can eat different food and not have an issue, you can learn different languages and not be schizophrenic still?

You know I was in a Catholic school, I am very proud of it, I have learnt my Hinduism from doing Ram Lilas of Chhabra Sahab in Delhi, which is wonderful. I used to be in the vanar sena. I have learnt Islam from my family. That is why I think I have been able to appreciate all the religions. So if we can do that, none of the hardliners have ever misunderstood me. Yes, my wife is a Hindu, my children recite both Bismillah and the Gayatri mantra. And it is quite okay and nice.

A lot of my friends are hardliners and they also come to my house and listen to the mantra and they listen and see us do the namaaz. And sometimes we don’t do it properly and these guys teach us. And I think it is a learning experience. I don’t think any Muslim will pick on me. I do speak the word of the Quran, which is actually quite like the word of the Bible, of the Torah and of the Gita. I find it so strange when we are fighting like this. Same novel, same topic, just different languages. What is the issue, man? They are just translations. Then I hear new religions are cropping up like Scientology and I’m like, God, we are going to have more novels now. It’s just about goodness and kindness and love. If we understand the impermanence of life, maybe we will start respecting life a little more, other religions a little more.

Q. You endorse lots of products. And we buy those products because you endorse them. Do you believe in them or do you just see the commercial viability? Do you use any of them? 
Khan: The products that I endorse, they choose me and I don’t choose them. I don’t have a management company that goes out and tells them SRK is really good for your product. Like I did my friend’s Godrej soap also. Which is fine. She decides I look cool, naked, Parmesh always says that. I am just joking. They are my dear friends. I can do this. I do try very clearly, and I have been lucky that because of the status that I have, accidentally, achieved as an actor, I do get the greatest quality products. Which have all great properties and qualities, even if I wasn’t endorsing them. A car like Santro, they are going to pay me extra for doing this. It is a people’s car. It has turned out well.

I had always had one consideration. I will never ever do a movie for money. And I don’t do that even now, though people disbelieve that. I will never do any movie because of any other reason except that I want to tell that story. I have maintained that for 20 years. I started this. I remember people used to look down upon people advertising. Thoda sa chichora lagta hai yaar (endorsing a brand looks a little cheap). The enigma reduces. I used to say, ‘Listen I don’t want enigma, I want money. I want a big house which Mr Aroon Purie likes’. 

I wanted to do well and I have done so. But now I do understand the implication. I have reached a level when even if I do a bad guy role, people get disturbed. You know my children like you. You can’t go throwing women off buildings now. I do because I have my own case. And I do consider the products. They must be of a certain quality. Of course I can’t guarantee it as I don’t know so much detail. But I know when Godrej is offering me a product, it is a world-wide known house of greatness. If they are choosing me, it is an honour for me. I can’t be testing what they have already tested.

I have just driven here in a Santro. I try to use it as much as I can whenever I can mostly because it is free most of the time like my Tag Heuer watches. Buy them now at the new price, which is going down because of recession. I do respect and thank all the products that I have endorsed that they have given me a chance to do cinema that I wanted to in my life. I owe my career to all of them who have chosen me as an ambassador for their products.

Q. I come from Pakistan. My interest is peace, good relations between India and Pakistan. Other than what you are doing by your films, by making films to make friends in Pakistan, what can you and others like you do to promote peace?
Khan: Ask what not the film industry can do for you. Ask what Pakistan and India can do for each other. Don’t put it on us, man. My father is from Peshawar. I am proud of it. My family is still there and I would love to go and visit them. I have been to Pakistan many times, my father took me. I think in the art part of it, there’s already a peaceful and beautiful relationship. Some of the greatest singers that we use in our films, some of our films that are releasing, there’s bilateral business and art exchanges already happening. Bhatt sahab is doing a lot about it. People love our films there. That’s very appreciated.

Personally, none of the Pakistanis and Indians have problems with each other. I had a friend in London for five years and after five years I found out he is from Pakistan, from Rawalpindi. It doesn’t come in the way.

I think we have taken politics to an extreme level and politics is about giving diplomatic and strange answers. We have confused the issue so much. Unfortunately, it is nearing a peak, when it may become irresolvable very fast and I think what we should say to everyone, as a person from Pakistan, I don’t think it is any different for a person from India. Can we just start speaking honestly about the problems we have and get it over with?

I have done my bit for the unity of India and Pakistan through my films. And I will continue to do so, I promise. It always works at the box-office. As an Indian and a Pakistani, we should just say, let us not let the politics of these two countries destroy the relationship that you and I share, that individual, normal people of Pakistan and India share. We had an issue. We didn’t get our players from Pakistan. Hey listen, none of the fans in the stadium is going to get disturbed with the Pakistani players playing in the Indian Premier League. But yes, we are worried that some political people will get disturbed. So let’s just talk to each other and say one thing, whatever be the politics of either country, we’ll keep blaming you and you keep blaming us, as politicians. But as people we don’t need to blame each other. Nobody in the world hugs as the Pakistanis do. So you teach us how to hug and I’ll teach you how to act. I think we should keep it very simple.