Happy Birthday: Sha Rukh Khan

Shah Rukh Khan :

Very few known that ‘King Khan’ staged theater for a long time during his Delhi days. During masters in mass communications Khan went on to study theatre under the reputed Mr. Barry John whom he credits for carving out the actor inside him but his mentor considers his pupil as being solely responsible for his greatness. Manoj Bajpai, another popular Bollywood actor who graduated to cinema from theater, was his batch mate at Barry John’s theater learning academy in Delhi.

His father used to run the NSD mess (located opposite Modern School) during Nadira Babbar's time. He ran restaurants, but he would spend most of his time there and not at his other restaurants. Khan studied at St. Columbus and went there and wait for his sister.  His entire childhood was spent there in the laps and roaming around with arguably India's finest actors. According to Khan, he used to call Raj Babbar, Babbar sher uncle as he used to teach Khan some of the greatest plays, be it ‘Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda’, ‘Razia Sultana’ or ‘Tughlaq’. Shahrukh wanting to be an actor growing up watching those actors, be it Rohini Hattangadi along with many others, they have taught Khan how to act. Anupam Kher used to come there, Naseeruddin Shah used to teach at Modern School and Sharukh have watched all their plays and rehearsals for months. Raghubir Yadav  who was the junior most then, singing the Ganpati puja during rehearsals. According to Mr. Khan, theatre taught him voice and body control and patience, but besides that, it taught him the fact that rehearsals have to be so rehearsed that they look natural.

He said in an interview, --“People feel that I perform effortlessly and deliver my lines with so much ease, but learning your lines are basic things that theatre teaches you. Besides, doing theatre you can sense that you have done it right as a live audience teaches you that. And the most beautiful part of being an actor is that you can be seen by thousands of people, but you can't see the thousands from the stage. You are quiet on stage. And yet everybody is looking at you. To be able to be looked at and called upon to perform and to be able to do so. Theatre teaches you that. That is why you will sometimes find some of the best actors uncomfortable with performing live, but anyone who has done theatre will not be uncomfortable. It lets you be the person who is stared at and yet not feel conscious. It makes you invisible to the stares. A lot of my understanding of acting and being able to do what I am able to prolifically on stage or in front of the camera comes from nine years of solid theatre training. And not just in acting, but in all aspects of it, be it makeup, lighting, being able to send junior artistes on stage, cueing, props, costumes, everyone had to do everything. I realised that making of an actor is not due to acting. Making of an actor is due to the peripherals. So I have a lot of respect for all aspects and for the entire team. Theatre teaches you to be in a group and it teaches you to move in a group. So, in any film that I have worked in, they will tell you that everyone had so much fun as it has always been a team effort. Theatre has helped me to create that atmosphere in each and every film where I have been the lead actor. I always create an atmosphere of theatre on every film that I have worked with.”

We wish this famous actor and theatre person a very happy birthday on his 50th birthday.