EXCLUSIVE
TOMORROW HOT COUPLE SAIF ALI KHAN AND KAREENA KAPOOR
A SPECIAL SERIES FEATURING THE FIVE MOST POWERFUL BOLLYWOOD COUPLES, IN THEIR HOMES, FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER
DO YOU HAVE A MESSAGE FOR SHAH RUKH & GAURI?
SMS HTPCSG<followed by your message> to 54242
Catch more on www. hindustantimes.com New Delhi, Friday May 8, 2009, 16 Pages
www.hindustantimes.com
Shah Rukh and Gauri Khan let HT CITY into their home...and their life marriageMANTRA According to the Khans, the glue that keeps a marriage together is the ability to ‘let each other be’. Trying to force anything — your habits, your friends, your likes and dislikes — on your partner will only make him or her feel suffocated. Live and let live is the mantra.
B
powerPROFILE Shah Rukh Khan is the reigning king of Bollywood, with his movies being the top grossers for years in the Indian and overseas market. Named as one of the 50 most powerful people in the world by Newsweek last year, Khan has been accorded the Order of the Arts and Literature award by the French government and Knighthood (Datuk) by the Malaysian Government. Padma Shri Shah Rukh Khan has won 14 filmfare awards and is also the recipient of Rajiv Gandhi award for excellence in cinema. Gauri Khan is a fimmaker and co-owner of the successful production house Red Chillies entertainment. A history graduate from Delhi's famous Lady Sriram College, Gauri is considered as a style icon and has been featured on the January 2008 cover of the Indian edition of Vogue magazine.
she’s thought of as an enigma. "If I have any ollywood’s reigning royal couple, individual style, it has nothing to do with the Shah Rukh and Gauri Khan, are surroundings that I’m in. I'm a lot like my ensconced in a deeply comfortable father —very private. It’s not that I can’t, but I cream leather couch in the living choose not to open up to media glare.” room of their beautiful home, casually dressed and exuding a zest for life which tells you why they command the love Sparing the rod? of millions. We are at Mannat, a 7-storey Do their kids, Aryan and Suhana, take after mansion, in a living room that, with its their extrovert dad or her? “Aryan is extremesumptuous furniture, massive art pieces and ly ambitious at this age. Just like his father, oversized coffee tables strewn with silver he wants to be a winner. Suhana is too young champagne urns carrying imported wines, but is also very strong headed,” she says. shows off the impeccable taste of the style At that point, ‘King Khan’ walks in, and diva that Gauri Khan is. after a warm ‘hi’, turns to her and says, “jaldi The Badshah of Bollywood and his film kuchh khaane ko do.” She quickly gets up to producer wife are disarmingly casual about serve some bhel puri and roast potatoes to what are clearly priceless artifacts. “When everyone while Shah Rukh takes over the Gauri’s not here, I play cricket in the drawing conversation. “I love my chidren, utterly and room with the kids,” says Shah Rukh completely. Gauri often complains that I spoil smilingly and we look around in alarm at the them. But since I lost my parents very early crystal, the designer furniture and the on in life, there’s this reservoir of love in me thoughtful art that could be victim to such and my sister Lala Rukh (who lives with boisterous family moments. them).” Gauri responds, “He’s a brilliant Moments before Shah father, but he can’t say no to Rukh enters the room , Gauri anything, anything they ask.” chats up informally, dismissHe justifies, “Why shouldn’t I ing any notions of being indulge them, as long as no ‘powerful’. “I have no power third party is getting hurt. of my own, I’m just an extenPeople say they want their sion of him [Shah Rukh].” kids to learn hardships by She quietly listens to us flying economy class. I have a telling her that a lot of people different logic. If God forbid look up to her as the epitome someday we face hard times, sonal.kalra@hindustantimes.com of grace and style and that they anyway won’t be able to afford first class, so why deny them something right now?” He chuckles, “Anyway, Gauri tries to be strict with us but gives up after a while. We do everything she doesn’t approve of, like playing cricket in living room or eating in bed, when she’s not around.” Are their Mumbai born kids any different from the ‘Delhiite’ parents? “Not really, except when they say ‘aajoo bajoo’ in a typical lingo. It’s not bajoo, it’s bazoo, meaning bagal (armpit). But they say, “idhar, bajoo mein aa”, which is very irritating.
SONAL KALRA
Compatibility quotient As a couple, do they find themselves thinking and behaving alike? “We are at opposite spectrums,” says Shah Rukh. Gauri agrees instantly. “He is hyper charged all the time. Wants to work 24X7. I like to travel…go on holidays, and he detests it.” “Yes I do,” says Shah Rukh. “When I’m at it though, I enjoy it. I never say no if the family wants me to go. They just have to say, “five days in London, or Delhi, and I say okay.” He pauses to light a smoke, and she adds, “We are similar in the sense that we are both ‘home people’. If you ask us where we like to party in the city, we’ll say nowhere. Perhaps that’s why the marriage is working. If I was the kinds who would go out partying every night, he would kill himself.”
didyouKNOW? ◆ Shah Rukh Khan is obsessed with collecting
houses. He says his parents struggled but couldn’t own a house, so he dreams of owning as much property as he can, in every city. ◆ Gauri doesn’t know how to cook, not even make tea. The last thing she cooked was a biscuit pudding — in 1998. He still remembers it as the best he’s ever had ◆ Their home Mannat has seven floors, and while most portion is unutilized, Shah Rukh refuses to ever sell or rent it out.
My karmic N connection with Khans Karan Johar SPEAKS
Where does Shah Rukh get his super sharp brains from? He smiles. “I’m not as bright as people make me out to be. Maybe I talk well and can converse on any topic, but that’s because I read a lot of books. I don’t know why people see this shrewd businessman in me. If Gauri and I take any decision in life, it’s for only one reason—that it makes us happy. For instance I've always been passionate about sports. For 20 years, I looked at Manchester United as ‘my team’. I wanted Aryan to have a feeling of owning his very own team. So I bought the Kolkata IPL team because I could afford to. For the simple pleasure of being able to sit in a box with my family and be able to cheer for ‘our team’. But people looked at it as some calculated business move after much clever thinking.”
PHOTOS: AVINASH GOWARIKER
Khans@mannat Love and hate Ask them about what they love and hate about each other and they have loads to say. “Gauri is a queen. I think she’s the most stylish woman I’ve ever known,” he says and adds, “I’m completely unstylish. I have over hundred suits, they are all black and look the same.” She clarifies, “Style has nothing to do with clothes. It’s just that I want everything perfect and appreciate finer things. Everything I touch and feel, the cushions, the glass I drink water in, even the towel in the bathroom, everything has to be just perfect.” He smiles, “She amazes me. I wonder, how someone can be so passionate about a candle stand. Also, while I go overboard with everything — over thinking, over worrying, over doing…even over acting — I’m utterly fascinated by her ability to remain unfazed at all times. I ask her, “Gauri, what did you do the whole day? and she replies, ‘an amazing amount of nothing’. I feel it’s wonderfully gifted to be so content. Also, I love the fact that she has never looked at me like a star. When my statue was unveiled at the prestigious Grevin museum in Paris, all my friends — Karan, Ritesh, Pultu —accompanied me but they had to convince Gauri to come along. There was this amazing ceremony in my honour and while my friends had tears in their eyes, she looked completely bored. She’s totally detached from the image of Shah Rukh Khan, which makes me feel that she’s in love with me, the man, no matter how successful or unsuccessful I get.” Does anything about her annoy him? “Nothing at all,” he says and she immediately jumps up. “Hey, say something because I have loads to say on what bugs me about you.” She elaborates, “He’s a hoarder, doesn’t throw anything away. It’s so annoying to see things fall from his cupboard. Also he’s late for everything —not late by hours, late by days.” And what endears him to her? “Oh, the fact that he lets me be. Doesn’t ever impose his lifestyle, his friends on me. Imagine if he
ow what do I say about this couple. What do you say about someone who you call ten times a day to talk about almost everything. Shah Rukh and Gauri are my family. Their kids are like my own and their house is my house, I can walk in and out any time. I've spent the longest time with them since I met them in 1993. With Gauri, I feel I have a past life Karmic connection. Although the world sees me as someone very close to shah rukh, I look at him like an elder brother…like a father figure…while
it's Gauri who is like a soulmate.We talk daily and I can talk about anything under the sun with her. His power is obvious when you see him on the most influential global lists like, when you see him get a Knighthood. But I have seen and sensed his power every moment. When I visited France with him, I had tears in my eyes to see 20,000 people scream out his name. That's the kind of power this man commands and I sometimes feel we take his super stardom for granted. He's beyond human. Gauri is
Shah Rukh’s sister Lala Rukh with his family were to do that, I would have gone back to Delhi, or hanged myself,” she laughs. “Also he’s not fussy about anything, not even food.” Shah Rukh shares an anecdote at this. “When we got married, her mother would visit us and like all typical mothers, tell her, “tujhe khana banana toh seekhna padega”. She insisted that Gauri must learn to cook and enrolled her in a cooking class. Gauri sent our maid Chandra instead” Adds Gauri, “It was so funny, Chandra with all those high society ladies learning to cook in a five star hotel. But mom was very happy that her damaad was getting good food.”
Family man Shah Rukh says his image of a being a family man with no romantic scandals is “nothing great at all”. “That’s just how it should be. Just because I work with beautiful women, there’s no reason why I should be sleeping with them. Also, I’m extremely sensitive about what my kids read about me. So I tell journalists clearly, “Write rubbish about me and I’ll smack your face. So no one writes trash about my personal life anymore. Anyway, now they think he’s got too old for scandals. Bachche bade ho gaye hain.” Gauri echoes, “A marriage works, if it has to, despite and in spite of the profession. We are not an exemplary couple. Maybe a Mr Sharma loves his wife much more than he does, just that he won’t get written about.” That said, Shah Rukh is clearly very much the romantic one out of the two, while she’s refreshingly practical. He sums up: “I love nothing in this world more than my family. I love what and who I have in my life. Allah’s been too kind, and I hope that’s how it stays.”
one of the most gorgeous and stylish people I've ever known. You feel like standing up and applauding when she walks into a gathering. They are raising their kids beautifully. Shah rukh has a child like energy about him. In fact if you see him in a toy shop with kids, you secretly get a feeling that he’s looking for a toy for himself. I feel lucky to have spent rare moments with this couple. I feel their marriage is an iconic marriage. Their marriage has made me have faith in the institution of marriage.