Soul sold for selfies

King Khan says his family has accepted the paparazzi culture that comes with his stardom

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan feels earlier his family used to feel awkward by the paparazzi culture, but now they consider it a part of their lives. He says his family has sold their souls for photographs. “(Being photographed is) the part of stardom that we all have accepted. I think everybody in this day and age is fair game. We’ve sold our souls for selfies,” Shah Rukh. Shah Rukh, who is married to Gauri Khan, has three children — Aryan, Suhana and AbRam. In a video gone viral last month, Suhana, 17, looked helpless and uncomfortable as she tried to hide her face and turns around to escape shutterbugs while she waited for the doors of an elevator to open at a theatre’s basement. “I think the kids started feeling awkward with all the paraphernalia. Every time I go out in a public place, I don’t take them with me. My wife doesn’t come, my children don’t come. I go to functions alone or post they have gone,” Shah Rukh said. To avoid such occasions, Shah Rukh said he made few adjustments for his family. “Some adjustments have to be made, one of them was that I sent them abroad to study. Not because of the scrutiny, but because they were feeling a little awkward with all the attention they have,” Shah Rukh said. “I’m happy they’ve gone. Where they’re studying, to a large extent people don’t know me. (But) I’m Okay with them being photographed. I understand photographs (need) to be taken, I’ve explained it to my kids also that listen, if photographers come, stand, do the picture and say it, ‘Please can I go now?’ And they’ll listen to you. I’ve known them for 25 years,” he added. Shah Rukh says his children feel that being “photographed doesn’t make you important.” “More often than not they’ll tell me how to behave with the paparazzi. They’ll say, ‘Papa, now don’t lose your temper. There will be too many people.’ I think they’re quite mature about it,” he said.