SRK's Blog: "We have been hit and hit hard"

Keep the Faith

You must have heard a thousand times that the way to victory does not lie in how hard you can hit; but how hard you can take the hit. And I am not telling you anything new. Every teacher says that to his student, every coach says that to his team and I am sure John has said this to you guys enough times already, just as a father says that to his son.

When they all say this, in their hearts they also wish and hope that their team does not get hit; it doesn't have to learn to win that way. A father feels, let my son win without ever getting hit; but you still say this to them because you know this world is a hard place. Games are a hard battlefield…your opponent wants to win as much as you do…so there is always going to be a chance that you will get hit. The best of us get hit…Mohammad Ali got hit…Carl Lewis got hit…John Buchanan must have been hit…Sourav Ganguly here has been hit several times.

So let's start from the fact that yes we have been hit already. So this is a good thing. A very good thing! We have been hit and hit hard, so the difficult part is over now. We all should accept that, we do lie at this point very nearly on the floor. So now comes the part, which is more important. The part that we need to show everyone around us, that we can take a hit; we can fall down; but we also know how to scrape ourselves from the floor and continue to fight. We still can take a few hits more and still fight back. Lots of people are saying lots of things about us, but none of them are right. The only right thing is that the owners have faith in this team, the coach has faith in this team; as a matter of fact the team has faith in this team. So there is no problem here at all. Just go out and play to have a great time…enjoy yourselves because pressure only builds more pressure. There is no need to prove anything amongst us. We all trust we are a great bunch of people and cricketers.

One lakh people out there have only one prayer in their hearts, god give our kids strength and a bit of luck to beat the shit out of their opponents. God will listen and deliver today, but just to make sure run faster, hit harder and go out destroy the opponent.

Lets play this like our first game ever as if we have to prove it to the world that we are good and can hit, then lets play this game like the last game of our lives, because we need to prove it to ourselves…that we can take being hit and get up from the floor.

I say a prayer my father taught me; whatever your faith, lets get together and say it… "Nasrun minal lahe wah fatahun kareeb …"

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I'll destroy Aamir Khan: SRK

By Joginder Tuteja Shahrukh Khan This one is a voluminous book. A real voluminous one at that. If Shah Rukh Khan has been known for his non-stop talk then writer Mushtaq Sheikh too doesn't appear far behind when it comes to translating his thoughts into words. He writes, and writes and then further writes about Shah Rukh, something that makes one feel that more than a friend and a colleague, Mushtaq looks at Shah Rukh as a hero. Someone who is not just his hero but also an entire country's - correction, entire world's hero! It is this very 'fan factor' that makes 'Shah Rukh Can' a read that seems to be coming straight from an admirer's heart. For a writer, such scenario has two sides to it: a) Because you are so much in love of a celebrity, you want to explore anything and everything that you had always wanted to know about him. b) Because you are so much in love of a celebrity, everything about him is taken entirely positively. It all becomes quite one-dimensional and even when there is something remotely negative that pops up, as a writer you have defences available even for that! This is exactly what one senses after reading 'Shah Rukh Can'. If the book is to be believed, Shah Rukh has never taken a step wrong, he is the smartest actor/performer around and if at all there are some areas of improvement for him, he doesn't need to work in that direction because he can be loved even with the weaknesses continuing to persist. Now this could well be true; after all it may all be a solid fact that Shah Rukh Khan is a fantastic human being after all. It's just that one feels the lack of a single written word which is 'not-so-good' about the King Khan. Is he a perfect human being, may be, but we do not get to know about it 100% through this book. Leaving aside this factor, 'Shah Rukh Can' explores those facets about the actor and so many other tangents in his life, both pre and post his stardom. The kind of detailing that Mushtaq explores in this 350 page book (which by the way is pure text with hardly any pictures) is a testimony to the fact that the writer would have spent quite some time not just with the actor in question but also quite a few other prominent members from the film industry. Not just that, there are clear indications that he did extensive research on the biggest actor in the country today and was fully prepared before beginning to pen down 'Shah Rukh Can'. There are number of such little instances that make 'Shah Rukh Can' an interesting read. But is it just about the actor and the trivia around his life? Not at all. One of the unexplored facets of Shah Rukh that is covered in the book in extensive detail is his views around acting v/s performances. There are reams and reams that are spent on the actor's philosophy around acting and other finer nuances of filmmaking. Now does that make for an interesting read? Well, not exactly and that's because this entire episode in the book not just becomes a lot verbose but also hugely technical. Credit goes to the writer of the book to have got Shah Rukh into such conversation which has seldom (or shall I say never) been covered by any other journalist/author in the past . In this regard, Mushtaq deserves a pat on the back for bringing in something which no one ever thought earlier. After all so excited have audiences been about Shah Rukh's personality and stardom over last decade and a half that seldom has anyone bothered to know about what makes the superstar tick in front of the camera. However, one fact that still needs to be considered is that majority of readers of this book would be the same set of audiences who love to see him as Rahul and Raj on screen. For them, how does Shah Rukh differentiate between acting v/s performance doesn't quite make for an interesting read. Probably, they don't even care. All they want is his arms going up in the year with the dimpled cheeks facilitating a smile that continues to make millions look at him in awe. Now how does he achieve that? Well, that thesis is left for the intellectually inclined, which actually forms a miniscule part of the readers. Hence the reason why 3-4 chapters have been dedicated to this very aspect of Shah Rukh make for a quick skip read! But ignore this part of the book and you have so much to know about Shah Rukh. Views about him come from the biggest of the makers, some of them being the kinds who have never ever given an interview. Case in point is Aditya Chopra who opens up in a big way while talking about his association with Shah Rukh. He remembers how he had to literally chase Shah Rukh to make him consent to do Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. Apparently the actor was not too keen on doing love stories and wanted to stay away from that until Aditya convinced him otherwise and paved the way for a dozen odd love stories to follow over the years. Some of the other interesting stories the books talk about: - Why Shah Rukh went ahead and did an atrocious movie called Guddu - His appearance in TV serial 'Waage Ki Duniya' as a rash driver - Shah Rukh coming into Chamatkar after Deepak Malhotra (who had a one film career in Lamhe) rejected the film - Viveck Vaswani being Shah Rukh's pillar of support during his initial years in Mumbai - His struggling period in Mumbai when along with wife Gauri, he had to keep working hard in order to pay rent for his house - His admiration for Amitabh Bachchan and how he considered him to be THE hero when compared to Dilip Kumar (there is great detailing that he gives around this - visit Page Nos. 206 and 207) - His lack of understanding with Devdas when Sanjay Leela Bhansali narrated the script for the first time - How he motivated Karan Johar even though the first shot that he took for Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was terrible - Aditya Chopra believing that Dil To Pagal Hai wasn't great cinema - How Farah Khan had reached the point of frustration when Shah Rukh Khan had made her wait for three years before saying yes to Main Hoon Naa. And last but certainly not the least (after all this is most topical in the current scenario), how years back Shah Rukh had made a candid confession before stepping into filmdom - "I'll destroy Aamir Khan. I'll take over Aamir. Main jab filmon mein aoonga na, baja doonga sabki"! Ahem ahem! Price: Rs. 395 Rating: ***1/2

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Aamir loves his dog Shahrukh

In his latest blog, actor Aamir Khan talks about a certain Shahrukh licking his feet.

The perfectionist star is in Panchgani, with family and kids.

Aamir writes: "I’m sitting under a tree, on the edge of a valley, approximately 5000 feet above sea level. The river Krishna flows far below us snaking its way among the Sahyadri mountains.

A cool breeze is blowing, jannat ki hawa (breeze from the heavens), as my mother calls it. Ammi, Ira and Junaid are by my side and we are in the middle of one of our favourite board games ‘Settlers Of Catan’.

Shahrukh is licking my feet and I am feeding him biscuits every now and then. What more can I ask for?

Now, before you jump to any conclusions let me add that Shahrukh is the name of our dog. And before you jump to any further conclusions let me add that I had nothing to do with naming him.

In fact Shahrukh is the dog of the caretakers of our house. When I bought this house it came with the caretakers and their dog!

Apparently Shahrukh (the actor) was shooting for a commercial in this house a few years ago, and that very day the caretakers bought a pup…, and named him Shahrukh.

What are the chances of me buying a house which comes with a dog called Shahrukh!!!

Some of my friends claim that I bought the house just because of the dog. I would have to be a serious fan of Shahrukh’s to want to do that. Your guess…

All I can say is I’m waiting for him to come over.

Getting back to Settlers of Catan, it’s a wonderful game. You must try it if you are fond of board games.

All in all I am having a great time with my mom and kids here in my favorite place on earth, Panchgani. I think Kiran and I must have done something good in our life to be blessed with this great place to get away to.

My hamstring muscle seems to be healing, slowly but surely.

Catching up on films, saw Casino Royale last night which I liked.

Incidentally Panchgani is a favorite with para-gliders. Now that’s something I am going to learn as soon as I finish with the Ghajini shoot.

Well Shahrukh is once again begging for my attention, so let me get back to him. He is smelling too much, I think he needs a bath. “Heel boy, heel.”

Aamir Khan’s blog can be reached at www.aamirkhan.com.

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King Khan storms Paris

Only Shah Rukh can cause such a frenzy even if it's Paris. And the red carpet was rolled out for him at the Musee Grevin where his wax statue was unveiled.

SRK, who was accompanied by wife Gauri and close frined Karan Johar, was clearly impressed with himself. "Amazingly handsome like someone I know," said SRK.

SRK will now have Michael Jackson, Marylin Monroe and 300 other great celebrities for company. So far, the only other Indians at the Grevin were Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa.

"This one's not smiling, how do you like it? Well I think it's very nice this was during the Dard-e-disco days. This was during my macho days at that time I never used to smile I always had this cool grim look. If this is being watched back home I would like to tell my daughter I am happy to be here. Suhana And Aryan now you have duplicate fathers all over the world," said King Khan.

King Khan, the badshah of Bollywood immortalised in wax here. He's seen as one of the biggest icons of emerging India and with the unexpected crowds thronging to just get a glimpse of SRK its clear that SRK's fan club is going global.

Waxed for life: Shah Rukh Khan poses next to his life-size wax model displayed at Paris' Grevin Museum

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