Shah Rukh Khan will always be one of my most favourite success stories. The man came from outside the industry and conquered it like no one had ever before. Bollywood’s baadshah recently made his TED talk debut in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago and was at his wittiest best. He spoke about his life, his struggles and how stardom affects people.
One always wonders what SRK was like before he became the superstar that he is today. He gave us a little glimpse of that.
I thought celiac was a vegetable and you married the first girl that you dated. I really thought that gay was a sophisticated English word for happy. And that Lesbian was the capital of Portugal, as you all know. We relied on systems created by the toil of generations before, to protect us and we felt that governments worked for our betterments. Science was simple and logical and Apple was still just a fruit. Eureka was what you scream when you wanted to run naked on the streets. You went wherever life took you for work and people were welcoming of you. Most importantly, you were who you were and you said what you felt.
And then, life changed drastically for him.
In my late 20s, I headed to Mumbai. I met people who had descended from all over the world. All the systems seemed overwhelming to me. Almost too thick to hold on to the diversity of mankind, and I saw the human need to progress and grow. By the time I was 40, I was really, really flying. I had done 50 films by then and 200 songs. I had been given the highest civilian honour by the French government, the title of which for the life of me I cannot pronounce even now.
Aww! You can watch the whole talk below. Trust us, it’ll leave you inspired.