Shahrukh Khan can't sing or dance [says he] but billions of swooning fans couldn't care less, writes P.Ramakrishnan.
Shahrukh Khan was an up-and-coming actor when he first performed in Hong Kong in 1993, having just shifted from New Delhi to the Bollywood capital of Mumbai.
With just three films under his belt, he was nowhere near the main attraction in the Indian musical troupe that took the stage at Queen Elizabeth Stadium - actress Jaya Prada, a star dancer/actress of the 1980s, was far bigger news back then. He wasn't even the second attraction.
Fast forward 11 years and Khan, 39, has earned the sobriquet "King of Bollywood" from the media at large. Forty two films, 10 of the biggest blockbusters of Indian cinema and innumerable awards, King Khan is Maidas incarnate, with a box office smash every year in the past decade. His latest film, Veer Zara, is now ruling the Indian box office and is No 4 in Britain's top 10.
But what are his memories of our shores? "I don't remember much about my last visit to Hong Kong - it was a long, long time ago and I've done so many shows over the years around the world, but I do remember landing Kai Tak - that was very exciting. And the auditorium where we performed, I had to win over the crowd as I was still pretty new."
This year, the battle is all but won. Last month the Asian edition of TIME magazine described Khan as the most famous actor alive - Bollywood's reach being 3.6 billion to Hollywood's 2.6 billion.
"Before a show, I am quiet for a minute or two, settling down. I don't get too nervous because I've done enough shows to know better. If you goof up, you goof up and it's happened many times. It's the imperfections that make a show memorable and fun. Enjoy the moment and move on," Khan says, as he prepares for a pan-Asia tour of the Temptation show in which he stars with a host of other Indian celebrities, including Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta, Zayed Khan, former Miss India Celina Jaitley and super model Malaika Arora-Khan.
Khan doesn't sing ("I am tone deaf") and doesn't enjoy dancing ("I do what I can, but I'm no John Travolta"), but he has to be seen to be believed. With a background of dozens of perfectly choreographed dancers, he re-enacts scenes and lip-syncs songs from his most successful movies. DVDs of his concerts in Britain and the US show Beatles-like mania with audiences lunging towards the stage as he throws out autographed T-shirts and stuffed toys.
The BBC has extensively covered Khan over the years and part of last year's Edinburgh International Film Festival focused on his epic on-screen romances. Then there's a temple some hardcore fans have built to him in India. "I don't know why I'm loved, but I'm conscious of it and forever humbled. I think there are better actors, better-looking heroes in India," says Khan. "I'm aware that it means they've liked the characters I play - if they met me in person, they'd find me rather boring. It makes me want to work harder, make better films."
For the non-Bollywood audience, Khan explains the vast productions and their indefatigable appeal: "The west has rock concerts, we have musicals. It's a 70-year-plus tradition and unlike any other country in the world. It works better than Hollywood. It's our method of story telling and it's no better or worse than other forms of entertainment. We have to entertain more than a billion people and catering to that mass number means the guy from Assam to the NRI [non-resident Indian] in Jersey has to enjoy the film."
Khan starred in Devdas, which premiered at Cannes in 2002, but says he's never had to defend Hindi cinems before the legions of foreign press. "I've never had to justify a film - regardless of whether I am hanging from a helicopter or dancing on top of a mountain, our style has survived Hollywood.
"It's very colourful, it's very loud, but then, that's our culture of cinema and we have to be proud of it. It may seem silly, but love it or leave it."
Even if that means sacrificing a global audience, which may not be used to someone breaking into song at the drop of a turban? "To a certain extent, changes in Bollywood are inevitable," Khan says, "but I assure you that of 800 films made, only 200 or 300 wiil be non-musicals in the future. We'll always have the tradition of song and dance as that's inherent to us. Why make a Hong Kong film with no action, no Kung Fu, no marital arts? That's why I want to watch those films, not because they're copies of western cinema. Why change Hindi films with their heritage?"
It's easy to see why Khan wouldn't want to change a formula that's clearly worked well for him in the past, earning him five Filmfare awards (the Indian equivalent of the Oscars) in a row between 1992 and 1995 and picking up his seventh trophy last year.
"I've been a sportsman all my life so mentally, the way I see it I've entertained so many people and [the awards] are their way of letting me know their appreciation. I still get excited about the ceremony, what my colleagues say about me and their kind gestures still matter to me," he says without false modesty.
"Achieving success is easy, sustaining it isn't. The process of film making is more exciting than the product. Once the film is done, released, it's in God's hands," he says.
"When I look back on films, I don't reflect on how well they did, whether or not I enjoyed making the film. For me, bad working conditions on a successful film makes the movie forgettable."
Despite the success, Khan says he doesn't have his sights set on Hollywood. "It is not like Steven Spielberg or [Steven] Soderbergh are waiting in Hollywood with a script in hand for me. I'm very happy where I am, with the films I do, with the people I work with. My dream is to be a part of a film that will be seen the world over - an Indian film."
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