Shah Rukh Khan on poverty, setbacks and stardom

Brut India

From winning the "Worst Actor" award to doing films rejected by other actors... Throwback to 2012 when Shah Rukh Khan shared his take on failure, using stories from his own life’s setbacks.

Transcript

00:00Me being successful does not mean my kids are going to be successful

00:03even if I teach them everything that I know and how to do it.

00:05Most of the films I signed were discards of better-known actors

00:08and the producers could not find anyone else to do them.

00:10I did them all to make sure that I was working to avoid unemployment.

00:14I just didn't want to be poor.

00:15I worked very hard, there were other people around it

00:17and I became a big star, the films became big hits.

00:20So I believe the true path to success is through the fear of failure.

00:25George Burns said that acting is all about honesty.

00:29If you can fake that, you've got it made.

00:33And he couldn't have defined it better.

00:34Honest and fake, yes, that's what I feel as a creative person all the time.

00:38Many a nights I have gone back home after receiving an award

00:41pumped up and all happy

00:43and just to read on the internet

00:45that what I really deserved was the golden banana

00:48for the worst actor of the year award.

00:51Yeah, it's called Kela Awards or something like that, yeah.

00:55Yeah.

00:55And I, I become heartbroken, angry and completely convinced

01:01that bananas and critics both should have their skins peeled

01:04and fed to the monkeys.

01:08I momentarily lose my ability to give and close up.

01:12And here's where the trick is.

01:14When you are in this place of despair,

01:16when you walk out of this college, this university

01:18and walk the path of life,

01:20where the world is tearing you down into yourself,

01:23there's only one thing you can do to survive.

01:25Hang on to who you are inside.

01:27Life as a creative person is like walking on a tightrope.

01:31I have to keep balancing, I have to keep the balance.

01:33I begin to lose myself in my own melodrama.

01:37It is frustrating that I find myself living up

01:39to other people's interpretation of what I ought to be.

01:42And when faced with dissent or unappreciation,

01:44I start losing my love affair with my own audience.

01:47It becomes a tight balance act to keep doing what I do best

01:50and not be bothered by the reactions

01:52of the people I do it for in the first place.

01:54I dance harder, I cartwheel longer,

01:57and I pivot on my rope, stretched taut beneath my feet,

02:01and I try not to slip.

02:02I can slide but never fall.

02:04And all this while, I have to keep a smile on my face

02:07and keep signing autographs and taking pictures.

02:10And why do I do this?

02:11Because I'm a funambulist, trying to balance my action

02:15and exterior reaction to my naked show of who I am inside.

02:20Yet when I'm playing this real life illusion out,

02:22more often than not, my honest self is sitting

02:25in the audience, applauding my performance

02:27while laughing heartily at my own stupidity.

02:30So my little kids and friends here,

02:33learn to laugh at yourself too.

02:35Whether I like it or not, my life has also been

02:37in constant play with what the world calls success.

02:41Me being successful does not mean my kids

02:43are going to be successful, even if I teach them

02:44everything that I know and how to do it.

02:46So I feel that talking about success

02:48is completely a big waste of time.

02:50Instead, let me tell you very honestly,

02:53whatever happened to me happened

02:54because I've always been terrified of failure.

02:57I don't want as much to succeed

02:58as much as I don't want to fail.

03:00I come from a very normal, lower middle class family.

03:03I saw a lot of failure.

03:05My father was a beautiful man

03:07and the most successful failure in the world.

03:10My mother also failed to stay long enough with me

03:14to see me become a big movie star.

03:16We were quite poor actually, and let me tell you,

03:18poverty is not an ennobling experience at all.

03:22Poverty entails fear and stress and sometimes depression.

03:25I watched my parents go through this several times.

03:28At an early age after my parents died,

03:30I equated poverty with failure.

03:32I just didn't want to be poor.

03:35So when I got a chance to act in films,

03:37it wasn't out of any creative desire.

03:39I say this honestly.

03:40It was purely out of the fear of failure and poverty.

03:44Most of the films I signed were discards

03:45of better known actors and the producers

03:47could not find anyone else to do them.

03:50I did them all to make sure

03:51that I was working to avoid unemployment.

03:54The timing or something was right.

03:56I worked very hard.

03:57There were other people around it and I became a big star.

04:00The films became big hits, which means sometimes

04:03a success is not the direct result of actions

04:06and let nobody tell you that.

04:08Success sometimes just happens, really.

04:12It is accidental and we have to take credit for it.

04:15I do it sometimes surely out of embarrassment.

04:19So I believe the true path to success

04:21is through the fear of failure.

04:23If you aren't scared enough of failing,

04:25you're unlikely to succeed.

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