"I started to feel that I couldn’t be who I wanted to be": Shah Rukh Khan At TED Talks

Shah Rukh Khan has become synonymous with the phrase “dreams come true” in Indian cinema and the actor says he believes love is the emotion that inspires and keeps one from failing.

In his first address at the TED Talks, which was laced with his signature wit and humour, the Bollywood superstar proclaimed that he sells dreams and love to millions around the world. “I sell dreams, and I peddle love to millions of people... I’ve been made to understand there are lots of you here who have never seen my work, and I feel really sad for you. That doesn’t take away from the fact that I’m completely self-obsessed, as a movie star should be,” TED Blog quoted Shah Rukh as saying.

The actor, 51, said love is the simplest yet greatest emotion known to mankind. “I’ve learned that whatever moves you, whatever urges you to create, build, whatever keeps you from failing, whatever helps you survive, is perhaps the oldest and the simplest emotion known to mankind, and that is love,” Khan said.

Shah Rukh, the first Indian actor to deliver a TED Talk, compared his “ageing” movie star persona to humanity. “Humanity is a lot like me. It’s an ageing movie star, grappling with all the newness around it, wondering whether it got it right in the first place and still trying to find a way to keep on shining regardless,” he said.

Talking about his constant face-off with controversies, be it about his faith or opinion, Shah Rukh said it has become a practice with people active on social media to target him. “Everything I said took a new meaning; everything I did good, bad, ugly, was there for the world to comment upon and judge... I started to feel that I couldn’t be who I wanted to be or say what I actually thought. We had expected an expansion of ideas and dreams; we had not bargained for the enclosure of judgement.”

The actor said one always has the option to utilise one’s faith to break walls or to spread fear. “You may use your power to build walls and keep people outside. Or you may use it to break barriers and welcome them in. You may use your faith to make people afraid and terrify them into submission. Or you can use it to give courage to people, so they rise to the greatest heights of enlightenment.”

Shah Rukh will return to Indian television as the host of TED Talks’ Hindi version, titled TED Talks India: Nayi Soch.