Superstar Khan wants to give something back to audiences

Primastuti Handayani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Stepping inside the lobby of the JW Marriott Hotel in Casablanca, South Jakarta, I can sense the tight security, but it's not only because of the Bali bomb blast three weeks ago.

The security guards have been doing double duty since Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Kahn came to town. He has a busy time ahead of him with a news conference at the hotel, signing autographs and meeting fans at the Sogo department store in Plaza Indonesia and later in the evening he will be appearing in the Bollywood Extravaganza performance at the Jakarta Fairground in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.

Sporting a white shirt and jeans, Khan looked very adept at handling the enthusiastic local media. Posing for a 10-minute photo session with producer and best friend Juhi Chawla, he held a lit cigarette while waving his hand and smiling calmly at a crowd of photographers.

Most of the journalists had forgotten their upset at having to wait for over 30 minutes for the superstar to show up.

For the quick conference, Khan spoke about his future plans and jokingly said he was greater than Hollywood star Tom Cruise. He even expressed his grief over the Bali tragedy.

"We come from a country that has a (similar) problem (of bombing). We just feel sad that it happened in Indonesia. Through the show and the Festival of India, we want to express our feelings not only to the victims but to all people," said Khan, whose arrival was delayed for half a day.

"We really hope that it won't happen again here or anywhere in the world."

Khan, who celebrated his 37th birthday on Saturday, captured moviegoers' attention after he was awarded best actor at the 1994 Filmfare for his role in Baazigar. Since then he has earned similar awards in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge in 1996, Dil To Pagal Hai in 1998 and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai in 1999.

The father of two has taken over the position once dominated by idol Amitabh Bachan, who has been treated like a god by Indian fans and has a wax replica of himself at Madame Tussaud's.

"I thank God for giving me a lot of happiness. All I want in life now is to work hard and give back to my audiences through my movies."

Although Indian movies have long been aired at local theaters, they began to take the lion's share of the attention after Indosiar private TV channel aired its Bollywood Special program. Its initial film was Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, which attracted many fans and forced the TV station to rerun the movie.

Khan's latest movie Devdas (Pining Lover) -- in which he costars with former Miss World Aishwarya Rai -- is desperately looking for Hollywood's recognition at the Oscars, although critics say it does not stand a chance.

The movie -- a remake of a well-known 1950s romantic Indian tragedy of childhood sweethearts who are separated and destined to pine after each other -- has been tipped to follow in the footsteps of a previous Indian movie Lagaan.

When Chawla was asked about her future plans with Khan, she simply said that whenever she had a chance to work together with him she would.

"Khan is very well known. In fact, he just whispered to me that he's better than Tom Cruise. Well, at least he has a wider audience than Cruise," she said with a smile.

"We've been touring many countries, including the United States and Europe. There are lots of Asian communities who watch Indian movies and surprisingly the trend is growing.

"Even nowadays, more and more westerners have begun to watch our movies, which is very good."

About 95 percent of the 1,700 tickets available for Khan's show -- where he performs with Chawla and star Rani Mukherjee -- were sold, despite the high price of admission, in which seats were selling from Rp 600,000 (US$65) to Rp 3 million.

Surprisingly, Khan admitted of being unable to sing.

"Unfortunately, I can't sing. There are only a few (Indian) actors who can sing and Juhi is one of them who can sing well," said the actor, whose favorite character is secret agent James Bond.

Speaking about his future roles over the next three years before reaching the age of 40, Khan said that he would really love to star in a comedy.

"I love comedies. But until now I've been stuck doing love stories. That's all right."

Due to limited time and a tight schedule, Khan's manager, Sanjoy Roy, had to whisk the superstar away for his next session to meet his fans.

As the media made its way back to the lobby, I heard a fellow reporter remark: "He was so sweet. He's not like Amitabh, who's being treated like a god. He's just human."