NEW DELHI: Shah Rukh Khan, who is touted as one of the biggest superstars of the Hindi film industry, says he is done with the tag and now wants to be a legend.
“I am 26 years old in the film industry which is half my lifetime really. From here on I am going to spend time in the world of cinema than the outside of it… I realised I should do away with the tag of being a superstar instead I should work towards tag of being a legend,” he said while speaking at the fourth edition of the Global Business Summit on “Bollywood’s Digital push: What it means for the stakeholders”.
He added: “No megastar… as egoistic and self-centred like me will fade away into the past without trying to wedge his or her foot into the door to the future. So even I want to put myself into the future of cinema like I have been in the past 25 years.”
The actor, 52, who has been in the Hindi film industry for over two decades, stressed that he really wants to be a legend.
“I really want to be a legend. Unfortunately, there are no articles or books on how to be a legend. So, I rummaged through my personal library and found a book on the history of humans called ‘Sapiens‘ and going through the book I found that the only reason homo sapiens have dominated the rest of the species is because of one thing, and that is gossip,” he stated.
The actor said that the spreading of ideas is a way of story telling.
“Genuinely, story-telling has anchored communication between human beings. Even entertainment is actually a derivative of story-telling. Whether you like music, art or poetry: all of these things are a form of story-telling. And the modern art of story-telling is of course filmmaking,” he said.
“I think there has been radical change in cinema and content over the years. A change even in the way we consume films. But right now I think we are witnessing the greatest change. The greatest change of this century has been the evolutionary revolution that has taken over the human kind is the opening up communication, information on the digitised platform,” he added.
“There will be a lot of changes on how we consume cinema and watch it. But mainly the changes is going to be how we market cinema. The second change that there is going to happen is that there is going to be a radical movement away from the content itself. Instead of waiting for loans there is going to be a lot more crowd-funding,” he added.
Shah Rukh says there will be a big change between the viewer and how an individual watches the film.
He added: “Right now the movie that attracts us, it’s a momentary catch of emotions or expression but soon movies will become an experience. They will be interactive. Artificial intelligence, virtual reality and visual effects all are so important that roles of actors and stars will diminish.”
The access to cinema will be more easier.
“It is going to be on your mobile, there will be no more appointment cinema. Cinema will be at will: whenever and where ever you want to watch. Although, I do not think cinemas will close down,” he concluded.
