There is no method to Kajol's madness: Karan Johar

She is spontaneous, brilliant, the perfect choice... Kajol is undoubtedly one of Karan Johar's favourite actresses and the director says he might not even have made "My Name Is Khan" if she had said no to the film. "I had only Kajol in mind for Mandira's role. And I don't think I would have made this film had she said no to me. She was the perfect choice for the character. I don't think anyone could have done justice to it as she has, " Karan Johar told in an interview. "Kajol is spontaneous. There is no method to her madness. She is sheer brilliance. Her expressions connect you immediately. She is all real, all woman, all human on screen and I don't think any living actress has the quality that Kajol has, " he added. Releasing Friday, the film is the heart-warming tale of Rizwan Khan (Shah Rukh Khan), who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome (a form of autism), and his journey to win the love of his life Mandira, a single mother. Asked if he thinks Kajol could portray the character better because she is a mother in real life too, he said: "Yes, she could connect to the character well because she is a mother first, then a wife and then an actress. I think she is, by her own admission, a solid mother and that's how she defines herself, " said Karan. The filmmaker insists the disorder in Shah Rukh's character acts as a texture and an added layer but it's not the focus of the film. "We needed a character not to be neurotypical because when he is asked to embark on a journey to meet the US president, it's a very illogical demand to make. But it's told to him in the heat of the moment and he takes it to heart, " Karan explained. "If he was neurotypical, like you and I, logic would have played a big part. But he followed the instruction, " he added. Karan believes it is difficult to make pure love stories nowadays because there is bound to be a certain cynicism attached to it. "I think a pure love story is difficult to make as we used to do decades ago. There is too much cynicism and too much of a grey area surrounding love. That's why a very pure love story will have certain cynicism attached to it. That's my belief. Having said that, I believe that there are some great love stories waiting to be made, " said Karan. It has been reported that Fox STAR is undeterred by the unprecedented success of Rajkumar Hirani's "3 Idiots" and hope to hit the bull's eye with "My Name Is Khan". Does it pose any challenge to Karan as a filmmaker? "I don't make a film and predict a business of it. I make a film I believe in. Yes, it's a challenging film because it is a new kind of film - challenging for Shah Rukh because it's a new level of performance for him, challenging for the entire team. "At the end of the day we have done it with certain conviction, passion and heart and we are very, very confident that the film will connect on a human and emotional level. I don't know how good business will be... I can't predict that... all I can say is that the film is made with a lot of heart, integrity and honesty, " Karan said.

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I need not explain my Indian-ness to anybody: SRK

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan is tired of being under the Shiv Sena scanner for his stand on Pakistani players in the Indian Premier League (IPL), and says now he is hoping that all ends well. " (I) hope all turns out well. Hate altercations and misunderstandings - tired of interpretations of this whole undesired and sad affair, " Shah Rukh posted on micro-blogging site Twitter. Shah Rukh, who owns IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders, had been facing the ire of the Shiv Sena for his comments favouring the inclusion of Pakistani players in the third season of the IPL. The Shiv Sena sought a public apology from the star and threatened to ban his films in Mumbai, starting with the much -awaited "My Name Is Khan" slated to release Friday. But the issue sorted out when Sena leaders unofficially retracted from having issued any such diktat to ban the movie and it is expected that it may be released without any problems now. Shah Rukh said he had been "misunderstood" on that issue. "I don't think I have ever said anything anti-national or non-Indian. I need not explain my Indian-ness to anybody. I have only said what every Indian should. I stand by what I have said. I think there's a bit of agenda and politics in all this, " Shah Rukh had told reporters after returning from London.

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Is SRK planning to sell of IPL team?

Shah Rukh Khan is contemplating selling off his Indian Premier League team Knight Riders. This is what a famous business magazine is claiming. SRK had dropped ‘Kolkata’ from his team’s name just before the IPL season 2 began. According to the magazine’s reports there are speculations that SRK is in talks with three big companies to take over his entire shareholding in the Knight Riders team. These names are said to be – Cell giant Nokia (SRK is their brand ambassador and they are also his team’s sponsors), Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group and Sahara group. It can be recalled that the King Khan had purchased the Kolkata franchise for a whopping Rs. 300 crore last year. Now if he sells it he can at least make a cool profit of Rs. 100-150 crore. The magazine further claims that earlier SRK was just interested in selling a part of its stake but all those whom he approached also wanted management control which lead him to the three names mentioned above to sell his entire shareholding. SRK has been quiet unlucky in the last season as well as the present on going one where his team is dipping right to the bottom of the chart. So may be it is that or may be he has realized owning a cricket team is not as easy as owning a production house.

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My first income was just fifty rupees: Shah Rukh Khan

All time hot item for news, Shah Rukh Khan, has recently started hitting news for his television appearance for Paanchvi Pass, too.

Starting his career with 1988 Doordarshan serial Fauji, Shah Rukh Khan has traversed a long to reach his status of King Khan. Here he has taken out few moments to have a bird’s eye view at his past life, his true colour and bit more…

Q. Who is the actual Shah Rukh Khan – an actor, a businessman, a father or a husband?
A. Even I don’t know who the actual Shah Rukh is as because I spend most of my time portraying different characters.

Most of the time we play such characters who are much superior from any point of view. But there is one common factor in each of the character I play and that factor is emotion. It’s impossible to depict a true sketch of a character without proper emotion.

But, when I stay at home I show my true emotions as a father and a husband. And I don’t know how much truth I can maintain while talking about my role of a father outside my home.

Q. Where do you find yourself at the best of your professional graph – as a host or as an actor?
A. Whether it’s in acting or hosting a show, success stays with me for very short period of time. I feel reaching height only when I make my cameraman or director astonished with the best of my performance.

I feel really happy when all those shots reach the remote areas of the country and people feel them from the core of their hearts.

Q. What did your teachers think about when you were in school?
A. I used to be very mischievous in school but teachers always forgave me seeing the beautiful dimples. That’s how my smile was famously known as the Satan’s smile.

Despite being so naughty I was the monitor of my class because I always topped in the class. Reading less was enough for me to bag best numbers. I had interest in everything other than learning.

Q. Any memorable incident of those days?
A. I still can remember that my few friends, including me, were doing masti because of which all of those friends were suspended from the school. My absence from the school on that very day saved me from suspension.

The five of us were the best buddies in school. We later on decided to beg pardon from the principal. All my friends were very jealous of me as I was not suspended. I agreed on going with them to the principal and told them that everything would be alright.

We went to meet the principal. He was quite friendly with me and that day also he started talking to me very generously which my friends could not accept. All of a sudden they started revealing my tomfooleries one after the other. The aftermath was very obvious.

Along with my friends, the principal suspended me also. Still I can remember all those four friends.

Q. With your KBC you offered people an amount of two crores and the amount has reached to five crores with your on going show Paanchvi Pass… What was your first income?
A. If I am not wrong then my first income was just fifty rupees. There was Sri Ram center beside my home. Even Film Fare Awards ceremonies were held at the center.

Once there was the concert of Ghulam Ali Sahab at that center. I volunteered in the show and earned fifty bucks for that. I took my friends to visit Taj Mahal with that amount.

Q. What do excite your children most?
A. They feel excitement in all those things that excites me. They are all very excited with what their father does.

Q. What do you think of education?
A. All throughout my life I have believed that there is nothing more important than education. But the same education sometimes brings in tension and creates lot of problems. Today people stress more on becoming first than learning something.

When I hear the cut off marks for colleges now-a-days, I get traumatized thinking that was I a student at this time, I would never have reached college though I passed my tenth with 92%. I think about how to make today’s generation realize to go ahead despite having all the pressures from education and job.

I want an environment where children themselves wish to go to school. I would request all the schools not to create pressure on children for education.

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Shahenshah Bachchan vs King Khan

When a superstar-turned-'national figure' like Amitabh Bachchan starts toting graphs and pie charts to show that he is far ahead in television show ratings than a much younger colleague, Shah Rukh Khan, it reveals a great deal about the icon.

A few days on, when the same superstar announces that it was not his intention to indulge in comparisons with colleagues, it reveals a few more layers of the famed star make-up.

These actions are an involuntary admission on Bachchan's part that his iconic status notwithstanding, he is a brand in the market and has to fight for his place in that mercurial space, like anyone else.

Like Shah Rukh, for instance, who consistently trails him in 'all-time popular star' polls. Khan is so damnably comfortable being a brand in the market and having a price.

He thinks being priceless is a waste of time in an age of convergence when cinema, television, advertising and live shows form a giant entertainment block, feeding off each other, and offering blockbuster revenue models to he who dares.

This space demands a different kind of star. In the late 1970s and early 80s, when Bachchan became a big name, television was a cottage industry. The big screen was the big turn-on; a star's aura depended in part on mystique born out of his/her remoteness.

But life in the coiled times of 24-hour television, 24-hour entertainment and 24-hour advertisements, promotions and endorsements is totally different.

A star is one, whose visage, still or moving, is carpet- bombed in magazines, on TV channels and in ads that sell the good life. It testifies to his popularity and brand value; can you imagine the hard work in being top of the mind of nano-attention spans?

It even extends to burning the midnight oil for blog posts to connect to that vast audience with a sudarshan chakra called viewers' response.

But look at the bonanza it fetches through endorsement, that contemporary fairy tale of the marketplace. Endorse a string of products and see your home fires burn brighter, with a film thrown in every year.

Whether it is curing indigestion, fanning a neighbour's envy or putting down unimaginable stunts or emotions to fizz bottled inside, how does it matter?

Everything hinges on how you create a persona and positioning to attract the market, meshing personal and professional aspects. Here's where Bachchan and Khan present an interesting contrast.

The aura of 'Shahenshah' Bachchan subtly signals that he may be in the market for whatever reasons but is above it; he is a man of lineage harking back to the literary, cultured old world elite.

Thus a mundane ad for a muscle relaxant is couched in ringing poetry as befits his background. Even his critiques of colleagues must sound urbane. Alongside, Bachchan's world is one of 'tradition' as witnessed in the wedding of his son.

It's a persona that has great appeal. It holds out the promise that you do not become what you consume; your past, your 'tradition' and the privilege of heredity remains intact.

In complete contrast, 'Badshah' Khan gleefully admits that the market is his world. That in a shrinking world, possibly the biggest adventure is the act of buying.

Whether it is a Kajol in his arms or the keys to a new car, he lights up in the same way. What are you made of, is the punchline of a branded watch ad that Khan does, and it sums up his persona.

In Khan's world, it is all right to desire. In fact in an ad for a dish satellite, he chides the viewers for not asking for more. You don't need lineage; it is possible to create your own world in the present free of the fixities of the past.

After all, didn't Khan gargle with a soft drink first thing in the morning in "Dil To Paagal Hai"? No wonder Khan is a first choice mascot for much of the corporate world...

The stakes are high in this world. But for those who inhabit it, it is a land of cash cows and eternal light. Be it Bachchan or Khan, they have to work at sharp silhouettes of personas to keep their individualistic brand values alive.

So one breezily buys (okay, in part) an entire team of cricketers - who at times seem like non-performing assets - and adds another acute angle to his persona.

The other, befitting his elder statesman image, works late at night on a 'serious' - almost academic - blog post about the risky business of TRPs. Life is tough, boss.

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