Reel seemed to spill over to real last week when actor Shah Rukh Khan was detained by immigration officials at the Newark airport for questioning. The incident - critics say - comes coincidentally close on the heels of his film My Name is Khan that purportedly deals with Muslim identity in a post-9/11 world. Shah Rukh Khan dismisses the suggestions that it’s a publicity stunt, speaks his mind on America and how it needs to change and how he and many others will have to live with the reality of having “common surnames”.
Q: Our newsmaker of the week is making the headlines, not for what he does on screen but what he did off it - the one and only, Shah Rukh Khan. Impossible to keep off headlines but that’s the way you are, isn’t it?
Shah Rukh Khan: Yes. I step out and I become a headline.
Q: You enjoy it, eh? It almost seems as if Shah Rukh revels in the moment.
Shah Rukh Khan: I start enjoying it because if you can’t fight it, join it. So it’s okay. This is the life I have chosen, Rajdeep. And I can’t do anything about it.
Q: But the reasons why this time you are making the headlines have led to some adverse publicities. Critics say that the entire detention in America has been hyped by Shah Rukh himself as some kind of publicity for your film My Name is Khan. It’s part of SRK’s attempt to remain in the news. How do you react?
Shah Rukh Khan: As a matter of fact, I am averse to being in front of news when I am not really doing it for my film. My film is coming much later. It’s eight-nine months away. Normally you don’t start publicity of a film that early. Second, it’s not very positive to be questioned, to have someone asking someone to be vouching for you in someone’s wonderful country. I think it’s a little disrespectful. I wouldn’t use that as a part of publicising myself, neither I am that kind of a person. So may be those who say this believe in designed things like that.
Q: But you know, people are detained and questioned at American airports, post 9/11 it’s a regular practice. Why suddenly should Shah Rukh Khan take it as a personal affront? Was it ‘how can you detain me, Shah Rukh Khan’?
Shah Rukh Khan: No, no. I don’t think so. I am very humble about who I am. I speak in third person when I am talking about my acting. That’s how I am.
Q: Those you speak in third person are supposedly vain.
Shah Rukh Khan: That vanity I have. But only for acting. Personally I don’t have issues. I am scared of rules and laws. I have had many instances like you mentioned – all of us must have had when you go to America post 9/11. I have been subjected to very thorough special security checks, this is first time immigration and secondly, I have a simple thing: when I apply for my visa here, they take my finger print and my retina scan. I actually entered America – I don’t know if it’s legal – without my fingerprint or retina scan taken. They may have it on their record or they may not. They kept telling me that my name was common and that’s why we are questioning you.
Q: What was it that made SRK – who has also been subjected to checks and questioning – suddenly this time believe that this was way too much. What went out of line, where did you snap?
Shah Rukh Khan: No I did not snap at all. I didn’t even know it had taken this kind of a momentum. I called a friend who’s perhaps related to the media. And obviously when you call family, they go, ‘what happened?’. I went for my work, came back at 2 am, had calls from all channels – yours being the first one – and I remember I felt funny about the interview. I hadn’t taken it as a personal affront.
Q: You did not take it as a major issue?
Shah Rukh Khan: No I did not.
Q: Come on, Shah Rukh be honest. You were angry, you were upset.
Shah Rukh Khan: No I wasn’t angry. I was disturbed with the kind of questions they were asking.
Q: What were the questions they were asking you?
Shah Rukh Khan: They were asking me for someone to vouch for my entry into America, if I knew Americans, I had to give their telephone numbers and also of my business associates. I was hoping they don’t call because it was a little embarrassing. The things they were supposed to check they did not. There were 20 people including an immigration officer who said very loudly that ‘Hey, I vouch for you, Shah Rukh Khan’, pointing a finger at me. I was like, ‘it’s a little embarassing’.
Q: So there were people who knew who you were and yet kept questioning. You weren’t somewhere where you felt you were being questioned because of your surname. That had you been, for example, a Hindu name, you wouldn’t have been questioned. Was it that factor? Somewhere was there a feeling that ‘I am being looked at suspiciously because I am a Muslim’.
Shah Rukh Khan: I am and I have accepted that for the past few years. And that’s okay. I am absolutely allright by that. I have no issues because I am very pragmatic.
Q: You’ve internalised that?
Shah Rukh Khan: Absolutely. My children are. Like I said, I don’t wear belts when I go, I stand and I smile at that. I explain it to my kids too. They (the officials at Newark airport) told me, very clearly, that ‘sir, your name is very common, it has popped up on our computer and it will take 15-20 minutes more’. I said, ‘okay I am assuming that Shah Rukh may not be that common, it has to be the surname’.
Q: Therefore, were you offended because you felt Shah Rukh Khan – the filmstar, everyone knows me, the people know me, yet they are questioning me…was it the fact that they were looking at the colour of my skin, was it the fact that my surname is Khan and therefore they are questioning me. Where was your problem here?
Shah Rukh Khan: None of these considerations came into my mind. I’ll be honest. I didn’t think they were questioning me and I felt violated as an Indian. I did not feel violated as a Muslim. I just felt a little ill at ease as a human being.
Q: But this happens to lots of human beings. There are loads of people…
Shah Rukh Khan: I am sure and I am sure they feel this disrespected. But they just can’t talk to you, or they just can’t talk to anyone…
Q: …and it doesn’t just happen in America. It happens in India too. I had someone in my office who’s a young Muslim who was questioned by railway police for a couple of hours. Obviously, there are people from Northeast who’ve come to me and said that they are looked at differently in this country. Racial profiling does take place in this country as well. This is a larger problem. Is Shah Rukh Khan only one little symbol of a wider problem?
Shah Rukh Khan: No, I was overwhelmed at the way media has reacted. I got to know about it much later. I think the reason why people have taken this on is not because of me. I think there exists an issue like this and I am not alone.
Q: …exists an issue vis-à-vis America, specifically?
Shah Rukh Khan: No, I think the world. In India, may be.
Q: Would you feel the same level of anger if someone you knew in this country is checked by an officer in the same way?
Shah Rukh Khan: No I wasn’t angry then, I won’t be angry now. I will explain that this is the truth we have created. This is the world we have created and will have to live by it. I have an issue with the systems of an advanced country – I think it’s outdated, outmoded, you please get it done right. You can’t keep questioning the same people every time.
Q: So it’s America’s paranoia that troubles you about them?
Shah Rukh Khan: Oh yeah. That is a separate issue from this…
Q: … you are saying America has to change. How does it have to change? America says post 9/11 our security systems will be such that we have to ensure against another 9/11 happening. Hence.
Shah Rukh Khan: And not only at their borders but also outside they go and make sure everything is well! My logic is very simple: all the good and the bad that happens, happens because of all countries. One country cannot be isolated or isolate itself.
Q: But those are their security procedures.
Shah Rukh Khan: I fully respect that. And that’s why I am not asking for apology. Because I choose to go to America. I know what will happen there. As a general issue, I truly believe America is isolated and believe they can take control of the world in terms of being the protectors. They are not. I am very clear that no one can tell me that one nation will control this. Look inside you, put your systems in place and make everyone feel happy.
Q: But those are their systems. The problem in India is that our security systems are perhaps not tough enough. The criticism of our security system is that if it’s a Shah Rukh Khan, he can walk past the security systems because you are a VIP. There’s a VIP culture in this country which must end. Everyone must stand in queues, everyone must be frisked whether in India or America.
Shah Rukh Khan: Whenever I go, I stand in queues, make my children stand in queues.
Q: You don’t believe in VIP culture?
Shah Rukh Khan: I have never called a person to say that get me in faster to any place including a night club. I go, I take my passport if required and don’t say ‘Don’t you know who I am’ if asked for identification. I don’t need to do that, I have never done that.
Q: Did you ever say to anyone ‘don’t you know who I am’?
Shah Rukh Khan: No. See if you have to say that, you are not well-known enough. I’ll die before saying something like this. I am very scared. I am a little odd with people with different language and accents. So I kept quiet. Once I tried to joke with them, they got a bit rile. So I backed off. Like when they asked me, ‘do you know anyone in America?’, I wanted to say, ‘Obama is very popular in India’. I didn’t say it because I knew they wouldn’t take it lightly. I called them sir.
Q: Look at it the other way. Couple of months ago, Kalam was frisked but we heard of it only later. Not because Kalam made a hue and cry but there came a document that suggested this might have happened. Kalam seemed to be okay with the idea of frisking, everyone else around him seem to see it as an issue of national pride being hurt. Do you believe these are issues on which national pride is hurt?
Shah Rukh Khan: I don’t think an amazingly gentleman like him would anyway be disturbed. He’s too far beyond all of us. Though I think it’s a wrong thing. Again the issue comes to – he’s a head of state, people should have known him.
Q: He’s a former head of state. He should be frisked.
Shah Rukh Khan: Yes, everyone should be frisked. Be it Hindu or Muslim, Indian, Chinese or French. I have no issues with it at all.
Q: The worry is that when a Shah Rukh gets arrested, it’s as if America has committed an act of sin or treason against India. That this is racism. Did you see it as racism? That somewhere colour of skin is determining how long you’ll be detained in that room.
Shah Rukh Khan: Err…I don’t see it as the colour of my skin or the colour of my religion.
Q: But you are saying Americans feel paranoid.
Shah Rukh Khan: They are and we are all used to it. They say, ‘this colour and this religion’ will be frisked a little more. We are used to it and we choose to go there inspite of it and so obviously we have to be ready for it. We should not give it a strong connotation. I also know people overreact to situations like these when a public figure is involved. May be the issue is real and since people can’t talk about common people, I get used for it.
Q: But you’ve got an Ambika Soni, immediately after you were detained, who said a tit-for-tat policy must be the way. We must also frisk an American VIP. DO you believe this is the kind of language that should be used.
Shah Rukh Khan: I don’t know about the language but the passion stays – that we should have as strict systems as America has in their country. If we want us to be safe, we should make everyone – black, brown, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Jews – stand in queues. Why don’t we have retina scans?
Q: It’s a strange situation where for a couple of days this was the biggest story. Now you’re saying it’s anon-issue. You’re almost saying, ‘it’s not troubled me at all’.
Shah Rukh Khan: I feel disrespected because I never made this story. I just called a few people for things that should be taken care of by the Indian consulate.
Q: At no stage did you want this to become a story?
Shah Rukh Khan: I have no issue about it. I did not want to talk about it. Suddenly I got a call from who I know…who said we got very nervous. I said no it wasn’t that big a deal.
Q: You say it’s not a big issue but you are still making a big deal out of it somewhere. Wherever you went to America, you did mention.
Shah Rukh Khan: I spoke to you guys first because I did not want any misunderstanding that I had gotten arrested or whatever. Even in the first interview I insisted they were polite.
Q: It’s almost as if SRK wants the best of both worlds.
Shah Rukh Khan: I am pragmatic and idealistic about it. Security must be strict and people who are not part of it mustn’t get affected. As far as work is concerned, I will have to go there. Whenever I am invited to America, I try avoiding it. Next time if there are 10 jobs, I will do them in two days and come back.
Q: What’s the big lesson you’ve learnt from this? You are a very clever man to have not known that it would be a big story. The fact that Shah Rukh is detained will always be a big story. Were you aware or not?
Shah Rukh Khan: Not as much. When I see 150 missed calls, it is a big story.
Q: Did you revel in the idea?
Shah Rukh Khan: You don’t revel being disrespected in whichever place you go to. I have enough limelight and don’t need it when I am disrespected. Just as a human being, if someone talks to me like that, it amounts to disrespect.
Q: What have you told your children about it?
Q: I spoke to you after 26/11 and you were wrestling with this idea. You were angry about people who were using your religion. You think it’s an image that has stuck. Does that subconsciously prey on your mind?
Shah Rukh Khan: No, it has numbed me. When a reality like this is there for four, five, six years – I tell everyone we have chosen this. The world has chosen this and we have to live with this. May be others will be detained longer or put in jail. My thought about this is that it should not affect us. It’s a perception that wont change.
Q: So Shah Rukh Khan has been caught in the middle of a clash of civilizations. About how America sees it versus how we see it. What’s the big lesson? Has it changed you in any way
Shah Rukh Khan: I have learnt my lesson earlier – that there are parts of the world where I am perhaps not welcome in – because of my name, my country. So I avoid it if not essential. I can’t be impractical and say I won’t got there because I will, on work. There might be times when you have to change your names. So you have to be worried, I will have to.
post by www.cinefundas.com
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