It is an overcast evening and we are heading out to Film City in Mumbai’s suburbs. Our meeting is scheduled in Studio 11 where Shah Rukh Khan is shooting for a Hyundai commercial. He has apparently come in late and the pace of work seems frenzied.

The shot is done and Bollywood’s superstar, with his cigarette in tow, gets into a makeshift tent that is the venue for the interview. SRK is bursting with energy and grins when asked how he manages to keep going at this breathtaking pace. “I guess if you have just done this for so many years, it becomes like second nature,” he says. And since he comes late to start work, the challenge is to try and finish it earlier than anyone expected. Lots of people ask him how he can do this day in and day out 365 days a year. “It is a big turn on for me,” is the truthful reply.

Brand ambassador

Today’s shoot with Hyundai is equally special since it is a brand he has been associated with since 1998. “Normally, film actors will be remembered for the films they have done. I think a part of my ‘legacy’ would most certainly include my relationship with Hyundai,” he says.

The interesting aspect in this bonding is that both SRK and Hyundai started off as relative newcomers in their own fields of specialisation. While one was this relatively unknown Korean brand, the other had moved from Delhi to Mumbai.

“We were just fledglings trying to find a ground and make it in a new market/city/country to tell people that we were there to serve them,” he recalls. There were other people and brands and “why should they be the chosen ones”?

King Khan believes there was hard work and goodness coming from Hyundai in terms of technology and understanding the market. The Santro was a car which was about a family using it together. “I think to come from a different country and understand the culture here with the Santro was memorable,” he says.

Hence, there was a degree of sadness when the model was yanked off the production line. “When we were letting go of it, I did feel emotional. And the fact that you can feel emotional about something which is inanimate and a machine speaks volumes for how we feel about a car or that specific car,” says SRK.

Right partnership

According to him, when people come together and believe the same thing, things work out perfectly which is the case with the Hyundai partnership. “To keep a relationship going for so many years requires a lot of effort for each of us,” says SRK.

From his point of view, the ultimate high happens when people turn around and tell him ‘We are driving your car’. “For an actor when somebody says I am like Chak De or I am like Baazigar, it is special. It is as big a high as that when someone tells me that they are driving my car,” he says.

As SRK puts it, how many people can claim something like that “if it is not your personal car”? To be proud of something like this is what “I think defines a relationship”. More importantly, he believes that when two people are working together, the most important thing is to trust each other on the job that they do.

“I can never ever even imagine doing the job that Hyundai is (doing) and think they can also perhaps not delve into the depths of the job that I do,” says SRK.

There is a lot of mutual respect on each other’s skills be it making cars or acting in films. “We keep it to that and leave the specialisation to each other and trust one other,” says SRK.

As he explains, when there is any kind of disparity or inequality in a relationship, it will never work. Does it also help that he is associated with a successful brand? In his view, the “honest truth” is that success formulates its own relationship whether it is a filmmaker and an actor, an actress and an actor or a brand and an ambassador.

“Success is a great deepener of relationships and so is failure actually. I think both of them work together,” says SRK. Yet, there is a certain sense of pride “knowing that a company started with you and I think it is similar for them that an actor started with them and we call that pride”.

He is equally quick to add that the ambassador is just a wrap up as the product eventually has to be good. “It would be stupid of me to think that Hyundai does well just because of me. I do my job as best as I can and try to keep up with Hyundai in my own line of work,” says SRK.

The challenge, however, is to keep reinventing oneself . “Success is nothing if it is not prolific and if it is not going to happen with the change you make. It is dependent on the market, audience and the buyer,” says SRK.

This is the biggest task for a successful company especially in a fiercely competitive market like cars. In his view, it is imperative to constantly do new things be it in the auto or entertainment space. “It should not scare you especially when you have an audience or buyer just hooked on to you. You cannot let them down,” declares King Khan.

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