Mumbai, Dec 16: Many Bollywood celebrities spoke against the terror attacks that stunned Mumbaikars, and affected the whole of India to the core. The words and thoughts are still pouring in from the common man and the celebrities alike. In an interview with a news daily, Shah Rukh Khan answered some pensive questions and suggested some plausible solutions for us to face the crisis.
Excerpts from the interview:
Q: Why didn’t you join any protest rally?
Shah Rukh: I am also as angry and upset, but I am older, so more in control, perhaps. If the rally is organized to show solidarity, I know we are all together. I don’t need to go out and attract attention on myself, and make them wonder if I am there for the publicity of any of my movies. People will misconstrue it. In a serious affair like this, we don’t need diversions.
Q: You have said you would support a non-communal party if the youth create one?
Shah Rukh: Yes, whole heartedly. But I won’t participate. I would always speak in support of a secular, younger party.
Q: You have spoken against letting ideological stuff coming in the way of our victory. Victory against what?
Shah Rukh: Victory of keeping the beautiful secular nature of our country intact. Whenever we hear anyone say that a particular religious sentiment should not be encouraged, we should not take it lying down. I am such a big star in a supposedly Hindu-dominated country, how much more secular can you be? But agendas of organisations become non-secular. The whole ideology of governance should be economic development, and achievement of security and education. There is no other ideology or agenda, there is no relevance of Islam or Hunduism or Christianity here.
Q: But Raj Tahackrey kept palying up a division agenda in the same city!
Shah Rukh: I think now people will ask such things to be shut up. There ius a togetherness that is brought by real fear. Now we know what fear is. We all have a common enemy. We’ve all seen people shooting at us and killing us in the streets, you can’t scare me by throwing stones at my shop, you can’t.
Q: Indian Mujahideens are threatening Indian Muslims against working in Movies. Do you consider it serious?
Shah Rukh: Come on! I don’t think when these religious tenetsa wer written down they made films in those times. Neither is there any reference toi it in the Holy Book that I have read. No religion has ever told anyone that work is wrong, any work. Still it is a reality that every human, be it any profession, has to change his lifestyle for the sake of better security in these threatening times.
Q: You claim not to be ‘selfless’ enough to venture into politics now. Selfless and politics don’t seem to gel well…
Shah Rukh: I am not pointing fingers. But running a house is tough, and these people are running a whole country – it is an astronomical job. Whoever takes up this job knows he will then have no time for himself or his family. I wish to spend some more time with my family, playing with my kids. I am not ready to give it all up, maybe in five years…
Q: AR Rahman called you an ‘ambassador of Islam’. What is your perspective for someone to be an ambassador of any faith?
Shah Rukh: Being a model for any religion is not the right thing to be. Religion is a language to seek truth, and each language stands self-sufficient. One language does not express the truth better than any other. Religion to me is personal. Like parents’ memories. I have my father’s spects with me. Karan also has his father’s specs with him. But I can’t say my father’s specs are better than your father’s - how can you do that!
Q: Then how does something so personal become a topic of public dispute?
Shah Rukh: Religion actually is a discipline, a way to do things. It does not equate with spirituality. You become spiritual by believing in the power of Supreme Being. Religion guides you to understand His power faster than you would do experiencing it. I’d tell youngsters now that we need to create a new religion, a new discipline. And that new religion is work. Working with honesty, working hard in the improvement of the place, which you call your own – your country. I think we just need to be more self-assured, self-obsessed, self-sustaining.