Need an Editor? Main hoon na!

(TOI Photo)If life's a stage, then Shah Rukh Khan's a naturalborn thespian. The Badshah of Bollywood breezed into the role of TOI's Guest Editor as if he'd been doing it for years.
And this was no impromptu item number, done Chalte Chalte. For over three hours, he turned in an immaculate extempore performance, rendered with Josh. A clear, concise vision for the paper was spelt out and all major reports on the front page cleared by him ���no Kabhi Haan, Kabhi Naa or puzzling Pahelis.Tough queries got straightforward replies, often accompanied with a dash of humour, but without any sign of diplomatese or Darr.

(TOI Photo)Of course, editors don't usually walk into newsrooms to the kind of rapturous reception SRK got from normally blase journalists. He entered to a standing ovation and was promptly surrounded by eager Times staffers pleading for a picture with him, or an autograph for son, daughter, friend etc. SRK looked a bit bemused, but graciously obliged and went with the flow���literally. The throng jostled him along to the conference room, where sanity finally prevailed and he was allowed to settle down.

(TOI Photo)What does dealing with this kind of hysteria every day do to a person's mind, we asked him. "How do I stay sane?" he shot back. "Exactly the way all of you do. There's enormous responsibility on you to write correct stories, because it has a tremendous impact on people's lives. My work isn't so deep, but it's similar in that I also touch the lives of people, most of whom are strangers. Meeting someone whose life I've touched positively makes me feel good, and also humbled, as I'm sure it does with you. But it doesn't go to my head. I spend too much time interacting with directors who yell at me for not getting a shot right, just like you have editors saying your story wasn't good enough."

(TOI Photo)Having obtained this rather interesting perspective on ourselves, we asked him what he thought defined the new India. "I can only tell you my restricted point of view as an actor," he said. "But I think what has really changed is today's youth. They look forward to the good things in life, and they're ready to back that up with hard work and relevant education. They have incredible focus and clarity of thought. I'm also all for the fact that there's greater leeway for foreign companies to come here and Indian firms to go abroad. Ultimately, that means a better life for all of us. I think that's great. I'm quite a materialistic yuppie in that sense. Spirituality and philosophy is nice, but not till one turns 50."

(TOI Photo)What should a newspaper's front page look like, we asked. "Well, it should have the most relevant news of the day." Then, taking a dig at one of our recent frontpage stories, he said, "Sure, it should have the occasional human interest story��� and I don't define a star's dog going missing as one. I realise that news is increasingly becoming about entertainment. But my son is now eight years old, and I encourage him to read newspapers.

(TOI Photo)Ideally, I'd like him to be introduced to three new ideas in the first three pages. So it should be a great introduction to the world for an eight-year-old, as well as be relevant to an 80-year old. And yes, I think getting on to the front page of The Times of India should be a really big deal. Don't take away from that. I have an enormous amount of respect for TOI and its sister publications. They gave me a platform when I was starting out."

(TOI Photo)Where does he stand on the privacy-vs-public interest debate? "You guys have to do your job, and I have to protect my privacy. If I didn't want something covered, well, I'd just do it in China. But I do think we're going down a road which may end up in a Hollywood-style situation, where people sell exclusive pictures of their weddings or new-borns for fabulous amounts. You want my picture, pay me for it. You know what? The more I think about it, the more I like the idea," he said with a big grin.