The Prologue

Film writer Anupama Chopra is readying hers for a June 2007 release while SRK himself will present his life in the long overdue memoir Twenty Years of a Decade. But Mushtaq Sheikh has an edge here; his take on old friend SRK will come out first8212;in May this year.

Sheikh is the vice-president of Mukta Searchlight, a division of Subhash Ghai8217;s production banner Mukta Arts, which looks after the company8217;s crossover projects. Titled Still Reading Khan and published by Om Books International, the 425 pager is a coffee table summary of SRK, the man, the actor and the brand.

Although the idea behind the book was to pack in everything about the star between 425 pages, Sheikh says the finished product is more like a pretty travelogue. 8216;8216;It8217;s not just a biography. It8217;s a journey with the man and his stardom, which gets bigger and bigger,8217;8217; says the 30-year-old Sheikh, 8216;8216;but I8217;ve refrained from mentioning Tandoori Chicken or his fascination for Pepsi.8217;8217;

The book is divided into innovatively titled chapters. His baby days are titled X Chromosome and the pages devoted to his family life are Mere Paas Maa Hai. His stint with theatre is chronicled in a chapter called Rough Crossing; his rise to stardom in Mumbai is captured in City of Angels. In one of the most interesting chapters in the book, Acting Pricey, King Khan talks unabashedly about his craft. Rare photographs from the past, posters of his films and classy double-spreads make the book a slick production.

Sheikh earlier authored a book on the making of the SRK-starrer Asoka. It took him three years to get everything down for this one. Since the Hindi film industry doesn8217;t have an archiving or cataloguing system in place, Sheikh had to raid his own collection of film magazines. The news gathering experience from his days as a journalist8212;Sheikh wrote for G and Star and Style8212;came in handy. 8216;8216;I didn8217;t ask SRK8217;s office for help. I just followed his life, got phone numbers of people who have touched his life and took notes,8217;8217; he says.

For his recce, Sheikh met SRK8217;s school buddies, his Delhi neighbours and his co-actors in Barry John8217;s theatre group in Delhi. He even tracked down a diehard SRK fan in New Zealand8212;a young woman who loves her hero so much that she has converted from Christianity to Islam.

Of course, Sheikh had all the access he could wish for. He8217;s been a part of SRK8217;s inner circle for the past 11 years. The association began on a film set Sheikh visited to interview a bunch of strugglers for a G cover story. 8216;8216;He was a rank newcomer then, but he told me quite passionately that he8217;d be the country8217;s biggest superstar soon,8217;8217; he reminisces. Sheikh liked the beginner8217;s attitude, focus and the great quotes he spouted. 8216;8216;Nobody after Chunkey Pandey has given us quotes like SRK has.8217;8217;

Their friendship became stronger when SRK8217;s wife, Gauri, came to know Sheikh better. 8216;8216;For quite a while, I didn8217;t exist for Gauri. Today, I don8217;t know who I8217;m more close to,8217;8217; says Sheikh. But he confesses that his book is not a controversial tell-all. 8216;8216;By just being himself SRK unsettles many, so I8217;ve just let him be,8217;8217; he says.

But expect some startling revelations and colourful anecdotes about the 40-year-old star. When he was 12, SRK asked his father if it was safe for him to take his bicycle around their building compound. His father told him, 8216;8216;I left home when I was 16. Go and find out for yourself.8217;8217;

Through anecdotes like these Sheikh has tried to separate the man from the image. From the pages we come to know that SRK analyses his solitude and is self-contained, but as Sheikh avers, 8216;8216;When he realises he needs people around him, he can get up and ask.8217;8217;

The first-time biographer has also touched upon certain forbidden areas. 8216;8216;His positive attitude is absolutely vulgar. If there is one thing that he can8217;t handle, it8217;s death. He colours any news or occurrence of death with humour.8217;8217; The famous death sequence from Kal Ho Naa Ho was inspired by this aspect of the star8217;s personality.

Dollops of personal trivia punctuate the chapters. Sample some: SRK doesn8217;t like salt and loses his temper if his food has even a dash more than what he likes; he has a titanium disc in his back after his back injury on the sets of Shakti, which he conveniently forgets about when he8217;s playing with his kids, Aryan and Suhana.

Sheikh insists there is much more to share about his friend, and is planning sequels to his debut. 8216;8216;I don8217;t know where to stop. His stardom is getting bigger every moment, so the story has to continue.8217;8217;

And what does the superstar think of his friend8217;s tribute? 8216;8216;Why would you want to write a book on me?8217;8217; he asked, when Sheikh first told him about the project. Maybe it8217;ll teach him a thing or two about his own life. Recently, SRK was stumped when Sheikh informed him that his old home in Delhi8217;s Gautam Nagar had been converted to a girl8217;s hostel. With the book, Sheikh hopes to stump the star many more times.

Still Reading Khan, published by Om Books International, is priced at Rs 2,500

IT8217;S about five in the evening; the hall had opened to let in a few early stragglers, a pert young woman who promptly begins to set up the stage, enquiring briskly of a young man whether the tea has been brought in. As the twilight dwindles, others walk in. A young man with a hairdo that resembled a mop, a dapper youth running in late from his job, a broad shouldered older man at whose entrance the atmosphere gets brisk.

The rehearsals begin in earnest. Action, take, retake. Cut! The filmi jargon out that is. This here is theatre and so let8217;s respect that and begin again. The actors, whose positions would be marked out in the stage, would begin the scenes while others watched intently; not so much more than the director. It8217;s a love scene and the mop hairdo has to say adoringly to the pert young woman, 8220;Mere jaan mere rooh mere Benazir8221; and she has to come back with 8220;Mere pyar mere sapne mere Khalid8221;. But our director saab isn8217;t too happy. 8216;8216;Would you guys do something so that it looks like you are in love?8217;8217; he says dryly. The scene breaks up in consternation and the lead actors begin again, this time with feeling! This would take time; rehearsals have been on now for a week and today, as always, it would continue to late in the night. And so as the actors and the other crew walk in and out upstage and downstage; the stage manager converses with the costume guy; the person in charge of the props runs around and the director is throwing up his hands again8212;let8217;s do the rounds and introduce you to some of the most significant years of Shah Rukh8217;s life.

His years at TAG 8211; the Theatre Action Group. For the young man I keep referring to, quite inelegantly, as the mop hairdo is none other than him. Last we had seen of him, was at the audition for the musical at Lady Sree Ram College and meeting up with Barry John, the director of this motley group. 8216;8216;A very graphic memory,8217;8217; says Barry of the meeting. The group was at the Lady Shree Ram College in Delhi, for a joint venture production of the musical 8217;Annie Get Your Gun8217;. 8216;8216;I am not sure whether we were in rehearsal, or we were auditioning. He came in behind me; I was in the auditorium, watching people on the stage, dancing8212;he said excuse me and I turned and there he was.8217;8217;

Shah Rukh found that he had been selected to be one of the four principal dancers with just one speaking line. He had come in a little late for the main casting had already been done. For the boy who always had the lead roles in his school plays it was a let down. 8216;8216;I was very disappointed that I didn8217;t get the lead role. But I didn8217;t say it, for up against me were all the big guys like Roshan Seth.8217;8217; Besides, he grins, it was a musical and he couldn8217;t sing. So he didn8217;t push it. But he could dance; do a bit of jazz and all that. The play wrapped up after four months, but Shah Rukh got a live extension.