Shahrukh Khan is infectious

By: Upala KBR, Mid-Day
Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Writer Mushtaq Shiekh has known Shahrukh Khan for 12 years and has written five books on him.

Today he launches his new book The Making of Om Shanti Om. Here, he talks about the Star (SRK) the movie (OSO) and his new book. Read on...

You have written four books on SRK. Not bored yet? No. Shahrukh is a fountain of surprises. Even if I made it my business to write only about him, I would still be in business. Because even 40,000 books later, there will still be something about SRK that can surprise the reader.

What do you like about SRK?
You can"t take out one particular trait and say that this is absolutely the most exciting thing about him; because no sooner than you say that, you discover something else. It"s this very quality that"s exciting, his wanting to push the creative envelope, trying out different things, sometimes failing, but still getting up and going ahead. This man is at the top of his profession but he still wants to broaden the gamut.… The ability to get up every day and not take things for granted including his super success is infectious.

And what bugs you about him?
His indefatigable energy really tires me out. Like the time we"d just flown back from the US, and I just want to crash but he gets out off the plane looking like a million dollars, attends three press conferences, records two television shows, goes to an ad shoot and then goes home, plays with his kids, and then heads to a shoot. Three days later, I am still complaining about jet lag while he"s fine even though he hasn"t slept for three days. Who can do that? Not me!

How long did it take for you to write the book?
At the onset of writing the movie, we had realised that a book was inevitable. So when the movie began, I started taking notes. It was an ongoing project, it took about a year. The difficult part was talking to the various artistes when they were not on the sets. They were all in different places, different time zones, and very busy, so talking to them was difficult.

Which is your favourite part?
Writing the chapter about junior artistes…it was a challenge to write a movie about junior artistes and writing about them in real life, because you know their real-life stories well. I wish I could script a different destiny for these hard working people, you know, change their scripts like you do in the movies, make life different not just for one junior artiste, but for everybody.