13 February,2009 06:57 AM IST | | Amul Sharma
Shah Rukh Khan who is essaying the role of a 'star' who interacts with a common man (Irrfan Khan) in the upcoming Billu talks about the impact that superstar has on a common man. Here King Khan relives his own experiences as a superstar...
As actors, not only do people go to theatres to see us, we even go to their living rooms and bedrooms through television.
We become a part of their lives. And sometimes impact them, even without knowing them personally.
Here, I relate instances that show the effect of stardom on ordinary people.
I believe...
When an ordinary person becomes a star, stardom doesn't matter I can safely say this because I was an ordinary guy who became a star. And I have had some strange incidents happen to me after achieving stardom.
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To me, the ultimate measure of stardom were the letters in blood; because I had read interviews of Rajesh Khanna where he'd mentioned, 'humko log khoon mein letters likhte hain!'
But to be honest, it's been over 20 years and nobody has ever written a letter to me in blood. There were a couple of letters which claimed they had been written in blood but I think it's red nail polish.
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Home alone
One instance that was one of the first, really revolved around a little boy. This happened before we moved to Mannat. We were staying on the seventh floor of a building in Bandra.
A 10-year-old boy climbed the drainpipe and climbed on my terrace at five in the morning. I saw him huddled there and asked Gauri that if we had someone working the house whose son was sitting on the terrace and she said, 'no'.
Then we learned that he'd run away from his house in Gujarat and came to Mumbai just to see me. We called his parents and sent him back.
This happened before I had kids. But I still wonder what made him act the way he did. I can't imagine my 10-11 year son leaving his house to Michael Jackson's (to me, he is the ultimate star.) house Neverland and jumping the big gate to see him.
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Into their homes
One incident that I remember, happened in Malaysia, when I was shooting for One Two Ka Four. Generally, I don't sleep on sets but I was tired that day, and I had some time off, so I went into this small little wooden house that the production people told me I could use, and dozed off in a chair.
When I got up after an hour or so, I saw 50-odd people crammed inside that little house just watching me sleep. I was very embarrassed and didn't know what to say.
They were laughing and giggling and then they got me a cup of tea and they took to one of their rooms above and showed me the place where they put up their idols.
They'd put up a picture of me there. I had actually gone and slept in someone's house who in a certain sense worshiped me not like a God but they did. I was very shocked.
I try to think how I would react if I walked into my home one day and found Michael Jackson sleeping there.
Star meet star
I have had the opportunity to meet international celebrities like Madonna and Michael Jackson but have never felt like they have in any way or form, changed my life.
Off course, I have a long way to go before I reach the stature of these celebrities but I am trying. I've always wanted to understand the minds of people who dedicate their lives to someone they have never even met.
How do they allow another person a celebrity to impact their lives in such a big way. I like to believe self-centredly that maybe these fans know something we don't know.
Maybe they know a good thing when they see one. Maybe I am someone special because if I really think about it, what other reason there could be for me being such a big star? If you are blessed and people can see that, it's not my doing.
Pooja Bhatt once said, 'good looks have nothing to do with me, only genes.' So when you are blessed than its got nothing to do with your talent or hard-work, or who you are. My only job is to make people smile.
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Strangely, from being a materialist-moviestar-wanting to buy a huge house and a good life and get an Oscar, it reaches a level where perhaps all this doesn't matter.
It just matters that people wrongly assume that you are more special than you truly are! And you try not to let them down.
Idol talk
I met this senior reporter in Darjeeling when I had gone for the shooting of Main Hoon Na. She showed me a photograph that she'd taken with me when she was a teenager (probably 12 or 13 years old).
I was trying to think when I met his girl, that's when she told me this was years back when I was shooting for Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman.
At the time, she wanted to meet me, but the only people who got to meet the cast and crew were journalists, so she decided to become one when she grew up.
Maybe she would've become a journalist even otherwise, but that was her reason. It's amazing how someone can make a career choice because of you, and you don't even know it.
(As told to Amul Sharma)
Billu in cinemas worldwide today!
