Shah Rukh on Why Indian Actors Don’t Speak Up Like Meryl Streep

Shah Rukh Khan has a word of advice for Indian journalists.

While speaking to Indian Express in an interview given last week, actor Shah Rukh Khan reacted to an oft repeated question being asked post the Golden Globes 2017, “Why don’t Indian actors speak up and take a political stand like Mery Streep did?”.

In his response Shah Rukh Khan raised several points, including some directed at journalists themselves:

I would like to turn around and ask: Why don’t journalists here behave the way their counterparts do in the West? You see journalists asking pointed questions to presidential candidates fearlessly and with facts. If the other person interrupts, they would stop and say, “It is his time”. Here, I want to tell the journalists that it is not your time, so can you please keep quiet. Can I listen to those two people you are asking questions to?

Shah Rukh Khan (Indian Express)

After Meryl Streep’s speech, asking me why Indian actors are not doing the same is weird. It is like asking me suddenly why I am not playing golf like Tiger Woods. I appreciate what she said and think it was very brave of her to say that in an event organised by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Our actors do speak. So do our actresses, filmmakers, producers and journalists. But the bottom-line is, you’ve got to speak to people who understand what you are saying. More than the platform Streep used for speaking, she had the platform where people understood what she said.

Shah Rukh Khan (Indian Express)

(Source: Indian Express)