Shahrukh Khan: “I Have Great Taste”

He picked up the biggest and the best brands even when he had not heard about them. That’s because Shahrukh Khan had the most impeccable style sense, even then. And now, that style sense has become a legend. In conversation with L’Officiel India, he chats about his fashion fetishes, his wife Gauri, his obsession with good jeans and everything in between.

Shahrukh Khan never fails to surprise. His confidence is overpowering, but his calm demeanour soothing. Almost like you’re not really around a star. We caught him on a busy day, just before an appearance for TAG Heuer. Sitting comfortably in his suite, Shahrukh met us warmly, waiting for questions to be volleyed at him. The first thing to strike us was his scruffy look. And the round of questions was initiated by the King Khan himself: “Don’t you like me like this?” Although it’s for a film, he’s quite on board with the scruffy facade, “I feel like a rock star. When I’m working out and I look at my sweaty hair, I feel like I’m surrounded by girls who’re screaming out my name.”

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Shahrukh has a keen sense of what he wants and what suits him. He insists he has no fashion fetish, and yet he has his eccentricities, as we discovered. “There is nothing I require, I just wear white T-shirts. But I’m finicky about things like the material,” he says. “I never wear wrong socks; it disturbs me. And I don’t know if it’s a fetish but I only wear suits by Dolce & Gabbana. I have been going to a store in London for 12 years now, and they pick out all the latest pieces for me. They even fly down my clothes for special occasions to any part of the world.” Well, if that’s not luxury, what is! Shahrukh is quite fond of shoes and “very particular about them”, too: “I only wear (Cesare) Paciotti... And, (Christian) Louboutin is a friend, so he sends me some stuff. If I really have to slum it, then I like very basic sneakers, like the ones by Bottega Veneta. But I guess they’ve stopped making them now!” Then, he lets us in on his obsession for jeans. “I have six identical pairs. And I’m extremely fussy about them. I hate it if the jeans don’t fit well on me or on others. I want to stop everyone who is wearing ill-fitted jeans and tell them their jeans are bad.”

Being a watch connoisseur from his early days, he always desired to have TAG in his watch closet. He bought his first one immediately after the release of his first big hit Baazigar, and even managed to get a substantial discount because he was short on money and the man at the counter was a fan of his recently released film. That was almost two decades ago. Now, of course, he is happy being the face of his most preferred watch brand TAG Heuer, and owns many classic pieces by the same. “I have three favourite watches in no particular order. Carrera is an overall favourite. It’s big and chunky and has always appealed to me. I like watches that are big, clean, manly and straightforward, without trying too hard for attention. Then I like the watches TAG had designed for Don, the digital and the analog one. And I also like the Monaco V4, a lot.”

And if he has to shop for Gauri and the kids, where does he go? “I walk into a store and pick just about whatever I like,” he says, “At the risk of sounding pompous, I’d say that whenever I do shop for anyone, family or friends, no one has ever wanted to return it because they always love what I pick up. I always choose really classy things. I have taste. In fact, I think I have great taste!”

But the greatest luxury the King Khan can now easily afford is: Time! Something that reflects itself in his love for expressing himself in 140 characters. “Twitter is the only place I’m actually on,” says the man who recently crossed six million followers on the social media platform. “What I write on it is exactly what I’m feeling at that moment. I like how in such few words, I can share some of the nicest moments in my life with everyone.” But taking a public platform so personally also comes with the risk of being misconstrued. “It always is! I have a great sense of humour, but I don’t use it on Twitter. Unfortunately!” he adds.

There are only a few names in Bollywood that can guarantee a movie an impressive measure of critical attention and box-office rewards, and, today, King Khan is one of them. Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaaenge turned him into the God of romance and Dil Toh Pagal Hai and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai confirmed it. Now that he is over 50 films old, a producer, the face of many brands, owner of an IPL team and supporter of a number of social causes, has he ticked off everything on his bucket list? “I have this feeling that I am not going to die, so I don’t have a bucket list,” dismisses Shahrukh. He can read the surprise on our faces, so he adds, “I am being very honest. I don’t think about having achieved certain things by the end of this life or my career. I think neither of them is going to end. I think of it as either positive or delusional, you can take it either way. A lot of people, my friends, think I’m delusional. But I’m smart enough to know nothing is permanent. I am also hopeful enough to know and believe that yes I won’t die…” Shahrukh’s refusal to entertain even the thought that things could go wrong for him is striking.

So is there nothing he yearns to accomplish now? “I want to make five great films,” he says, “But every time I think I have made those five great films, I realise I haven’t. Not yet. So, I want to get up in the morning and work harder, be tougher, and find more creative things to do.” The combination of his enigmatic personality and charismatic frankness has won him a faithful following, but he has earned his success through persistence and dedicated effort. “I do what I feel like as an actor,” says Shahrukh nonchalantly, adding immediately: “I can afford to say that now. But when I started working, I had a lot of reasons, like youngsters have. I wanted to earn a lot of money, buy a house, be the biggest star. I wanted to compete with so and so. And I see all the young people I am working with talking like that. But I always yearned to do what I felt like. So that is where I’m at right now, finally. I couldn’t do it ten years ago due to XYZ reasons, commitments… Now I can. So if I want to see my son in London on a Thursday, I can do that. And I love that freedom. I think that’s the greatest achievement and I would like to live it for the next 15-20 years.”

From the January 2014 issue of L’Officiel India.