Floating & Floored: When A FAN Met SRK

When I got an email from Desimartini asking me to go for a group interview with SRK I wrote back saying no since I had a play to go to.  Ten minutes passed before the enormity of what I had done sunk in. I had said no to an interview with SRK for a play? How could I have been so stupid? After I had salvaged the situation, another level of panic gripped me. What if I made a fool of myself? Asked a really stupid question or worse drooled while trying to say something? And the biggest question of all – what does one wear when one goes to meet a superstar? 

Dressed in my best peach top that I thought flattered me the most and some smart heels (heels can do for your confidence what Deepak Chopra can’t) I presented myself at the YRF studio gate at 6pm. I was told that SRK usually ran very late, but I wasn’t taking any chances. It’s a different feeling believe me, to inform the guard that “SRK ke saath interview hai.” Cheap thrills are made of these! 

I had a list of questions from the DM team and some of my own that I thought were so brilliant that SRK was going to point out to me and say “Please ask that lady in that pretty peach top to join me for coffee after this interaction is over. We seem to have a lot to talk about.” Sweet dreams are made of these and a girl can daydream can’t she? 

After a very short wait (thank God I went on time) we were ushered into a small dimly lit area where there were a lot of people milling about. I looked around, caught my first glimpse of him and heard an African drumbeat. It was only my heart beating a wild rhythm. I took a deep breath, grabbed a chair close to the front and realized that this was not a large conference but a close interaction with just around 20 of us and the man himself. This was fantastic. Good decision on the peach top. We settled down, he grabbed his seat and proceeded to make slaves out of us for the next one hour. He smiled, wisecracked, acted and above all patiently answered questions, some of which he must have answered, maybe, just an hour before. 

Sitting there in a casual jacket and jeans with a beard and a moustache that hid probably a whole lot of tiredness, he discussed everything from his upcoming movie Fan (Aryan Khanna is not SRK) to what would make Bollywood bigger (technology) to has stardom hit him (stardom has caressed me) to his need for a normal life (I don’t need one. I love being a superstar) to his need for fans (stardom is fully dependent on people loving you) to his high profile life (I am a fakir). The answers came smoothly, effortlessly - maybe from a million interviews before or from his quicksilver brain that processed everything quickly and gave answers that made us laugh on cue. 

As I sat there listening to him doling out witticisms and advice I wondered how tough it must be to stay engaged, connected and be interested in the people in front of you asking their question eagerly, looking for the sound bytes that would make their stories sparkle. And he didn’t disappoint anyone, treating each person and each question with a respect that could only make you love him. 

But it was not the interview that was interesting. It was when the interaction was over that the real fun began. All pretenses at being cool and professional were dropped as each one of us jostled for a photograph, an autograph, our minute of being with him. And he being the consummate showman, made everyone happy. Making a heart with his hands for one young girl to advising another against a selfie due to bad light, to signing on a cellphone for a third and winning my heart by asking me questions about my daughter. We had stood in the magnetic field of a star and the electricity still sloshed around us in waves leaving us happy, shining people. 

I almost skipped out of YRF beaming at the watchman. I looked at the pictures on my phone. I had stars in my eyes and looked like the teenager I felt. SRK was looking at me like I was the only other person in the room. He once said he could romance a tree. Well today that tree was me and I was waving my branches in the ‘hawa ka jhoka’ that was SRK. Whether I like his movies or not, I remain a Jabra fan of the man forever.