This story is from August 5, 2007

No animosity now for SRK

TNN / Aug 5, 2007, 00:00 IST

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Recently Big B has sent me a jacket for winning a French award.’

Shah Rukh Khan says there is no awkwardness between him and Amitabh Bachchan anymore
While most of his counterparts are courting Hollywood, Shah Rukh Khan is adding finishing touches to his films (Shimit Amin’s Chak DeIndia and Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om).
He has just come home with a French honour (Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts des Lettres), will have his statue installed at French Graven Museum in Paris very soon, and might even get to meet Queen Elizabeth for the London premiere of a film.
Shah Rukh admits that after doing a lot of work in the last decade because my heart said ‘yes’. I’m no longer in the phase where I do a film because it has action or romance. The script decides things for me.

In his newest flick, Shah Rukh even moves away from his larger-than-life image, sports a stubble and shows 16 youngsters how to win a hockey match. Chak De has no villains, no bloodied climaxes, no heroines I romance and a screenplay which is very, very different.
Even after 18 years in the profession, I learnt a lot from the newcomers (in both his films) I worked with their rawness, desire to work hard, and passion to excel touches you. And, contrary to reports in the media, director Shimit (Amin) and I had no fallout.

I’ve known him since our Asoka days, he’s very bright, he says. SRK is reported to have sold the worldwide rights of OSO for a whopping Rs 75 crore, is in talks with Anuradha Prasad to co-produce TV shows and has mega plans for the Red Chillies VFX wing.
I wish I was getting that amount for OSO. Though I admit that, thanks to the many avenues, like satellite, music etc, producers get to earn more money from films. In 2004, Main Hoon Na opened to Rs 5 crore, today most films make more money than that in the first weekends.
As for TV, Anu is an old friend and she wants me to produce a show for her TV channel. So, I have asked my Red Chillies team to make a presentation in November about TV shows and we’ll take it from there.
SRK says he is planning a film with Shankar and we’ll be looking at lots of VFX for that. I want to give back to the industry by improving the quality of special effects."
SRK owes his new trim avatar to a nagging backpain, a regular workout regime and some egging on from son Aryan. I can never look like a hunk, but being fit helps. It wasn’t for a film. As the talk veers to his improved relationship with Amitabh Bachchan, SRK confesses that he’s no longer upset with the idle gossip anymore.
here never was any friction between us. Very recently, he sent me a designer jacket for my French award win and I sent him one too. We keep interacting with each other and there never has been any awkwardness between us.
Once the greasepaint comes off, SRK likes to read, play football with friends, play games on his laptop, teach his children, attend their sports/annual day functions and plans his work schedule according to their vacation.

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