I’m pathetic, comic in relationships: Shah Rukh
Just one look, a dimpled smile and outstretched arms are all that Shah Rukh Khan needs to personify the ultimate lover on screen, but the reality is different, says the superstar.
In an interview, Shah Rukh says, “I am pathetic with relationships. I am so pathetic that I am comic. If somebody said what did you say to him or her when he or she said this, my answer would shock you. They are like ‘but how could you?’ and I say, ‘I don’t know how else to relate to this.’ I am very bad with relationships, I am awful.”
Unlike his characters on screen who travel continents to profess love, Shah Rukh prefers to hide his emotions.
“I am extremely one-sided, perhaps even selfish. Actually, I am very detached. I am demotional - emotional and detached, I don’t know how it works. I won’t be able to say anything that I’ve done in my films to a girl, or even in relationships... I am extremely closeted, introverted, shy, reclusive and completely shut off about my emotions.”
And this dichotomy is per- haps what helps him play the romantic hero. “I don’t have to believe in it, I have to make you believe in it and that’s a challenge always... An actor always goes for something that he is not. I want to be a Batman, a Spider-Man, a fire fighter, an evil conniving don and I want to be the greatest lover in the world. And I am not any of these. That’s why it turns me on,” he says.
The star is aware of the absurdities of grand romantic gestures in his films.
“I am not telling you to run after a train and climb it. In real life, I would stop the train, or say let’s meet at the next station. In Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, the girl is getting married to a guy downstairs, I walk up to her and say ‘I love you’. Now that’s extremely weird!” PTI
I want to be a Batman, a Spider-Man, a fire fighter, an evil conniving don and I want to be the greatest lover in the world. And I am not any of these. That’s why it turns me on.” Shah Rukh Khan