Shah Rukh Khan is a complete romantic. In reel and real life. He talks to The Quint about the romance of a train ride and how it has evolved through the years.
Before superstardom hit him, SRK took many train journeys. Here he describes one particular memorable incident:
When I was younger and even now, I found trains utterly romantic. I never had a romance in train. But having read books, poetry, I find the rhythm of a train very romantic. In movies it is time-bound, we ate moving from one place to another, or either it is stationary, you can do it with a green screen but I really feel it can be utterly romantic to be on a train. This is the only place in the world where I can go to sleep. I write actually in trains.Shah Rukh Khan
SRK on his Chhaiyya Chhaiyya experience.
That was shot. You know, except me, everybody was tied on the train. That’s exactly why I could do the jumps. The dancers were all tied down that’s why it was very difficult. The train was slow it wasn’t so fast but many times those overhead bridges use to come and there was no communication like how you have those speakers now. I remember Farah and the rest of the team carried a white cloth. Every time they put it up, it meant stop the song and just bend down. It was very scary. Because even when you lie down it was like you could literally hear the bridge pass by you. That song was shot guerrilla style. A couple of people inside the train fell. You know the train would stop and suddenly start. It was very difficult to shoot the song. It was fun but difficult.Shah Rukh Khan
SRK is terribly missing AbRam on this train journey and talks about his young son’s penchant for the camera.
He is full of fun. He was with me in Dubai and he had fun. He doesn’t trouble me and everybody is kind to him, including the media. He is used to the paparazzi and used to being with my team and me. He also travelled with me to Imtiaz’s set. He waves to the media. Last night, I took a flight from Dubai and people wanted to take pictures with me. He wanted to be a part of every picture!Shah Rukh Khan
Unlike other stars, SRK thoroughly enjoys the process of promotions.
When lot of actors tell me they don’t like promotions and they get weary of it, I don’t feel that. I really enjoy them. With due respect, when someone is going away you spend more time with them and do everything together to spend time. When my kids go, I stay awake and have lunch or dinner with them. For me promotions is genuinely like this. I am happy. To me it is not hard-work. I could have taken a flight and gone. But I wanted to enjoy and have fun. I wanted to meet my fans and enjoy the process. It is not just the five star hotels but the memories of Raees will remain forever.Shah Rukh Khan
But the actor admits he hasn’t seen most of his films post release in a long time because he becomes numb and exhausted by the end of it.
I’m very tired by the end of it. I have no feelings when the film releases. Every film that comes out there is a trial. Which I might not get to see. During the trials people say good and bad things, it is a strange numb zone. It is a very personal feeling. After 2-3 days I spend time and think about it. I keep it to myself. I don’t know if I will see Raees. Whether I will be there or no or if I would be handling some issue, talking to someone or something. All those inconsequential things take away the feeling.Shah Rukh Khan
SRK also talks about romance in his next release with Anushka Sharma which is being directed by Imtiaz Ali.
Maybe in Imtiaz’s film romance might be there because I am kind of playing my age, 40s. The lady, of course, Anushka is younger than me. There is this formality (in the film) because he belongs to that world. The romantic part of the film may vary, but the language is very Imtiaz. He is very modern thinking, has a different take on romance. I think it could be a mix, I am not too sure. But youngsters should do films with the ease, formality and the language still being new.Shah Rukh Khan
SRK on movies being looked at from a gender point of view.
“It’s not just movies, with all due respect to all of you, you all have become debaters. I keep telling people, where are the times of conversations? Lets just chat, not take a side. For a moment can we all have conversation without thinking?”
SRK also plans to play some fun board games on the train journey.
SRK on how the idea to travel by train came about and his close association with them throughout his films.
We were talking about wanting to travel to cities for this but I wanted call everyone here and do it. You know with every film it’s different. During Chennai Express we could just go in a mall and dance, with Happy New Year we could do anything but this film we cannot do all that cause it has a different kind of dignity to maintain even though it’s a popular film. But we have a few days left so we were like can we do something we can meet people from different cities and one member from my team said let’s take a train. There’s also a small train sequence in the film so he said trains are very closely attached to your being. I said how and he said Chhaiyya Chhaiyya, Chennai Express. Then I thought Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman had a train, Main Hoon Na I come out of a train, in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai I see off one of the ladies in a train. I don’t remember clearly but somewhere I remember I have spent a lot of time in the train. So I have always had trains associated it me. It’s nice. And I am impressed. One keeps hearing about railways, upliftment. We are in the second class. When I walked in I thought this is the first class but before this used to be the first classShah Rukh Khan
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