- Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Chubb Fellowship lecture with Shah Rukh Khan in collaboration with the South Asian Society. In 1949, Yale alumnus, Hendon Chubb founded a speaking fellowship to promote the notion that service to the public good is the highest calling to which the citizen can aspire. According to visiting speaker, to be named a Chubb Fellow is Yale's
most notable honor. Chubb Fellows have included
national heads of state, international leaders, Nobel
and Pulitzer Prize winners, and a wide range of highly
accomplished individuals in politics, business,
science, and the arts. The experiences and leadership
of these individuals have helped defined the
challenges of our times, and the way that we should
seek to address them. All of us at Yale are exceptionally proud to be the first American
university to honor Mr. Khan. (audience cheering) Mr. Khan, we awaited
for your arrival eagerly and having you with us is
nothing short of a dream. I'm sure everyone in the
audience agrees with me too. (audience cheering) Let me just get a general sense. How many have you all have dreamt of seeing Mr. Shah Rukh Khan? (audience cheering) Ladies and gentlemen,
all lucky 1,700 of you, imagine 300,000 times a
number of people in this room. Around three billion people, three times the population of India, are approximately one in every two people in the world. That is the number of people that recognize Mr. Khan globally. 11,
(audience applauding) 11 of his movies have grossed
over a billion dollars. He's been nominated for some 200 awards, won around 150, of which 11 have been the prestigious Best Actor Filmfare Award. And of course, in addition to all of this, he's stolen the heart of
countless and countless girls. (audience cheering) It is only natural that he's fondly referred to as King Khan, not only has he ruled Bollywood
for the last two decades, but he's also reign over the hearts of millions and millions of people. I want to share a little story about how wonderful a person Mr. Khan is. A very long time ago, when I
was a newly admitted Yalie, I excitedly asked Mr. Khan
if he would come visit Yale. And he'd very politely
said yes and expressed how important it was to him
to engage with students. This year, when I was elected president of the South Asian Society, I decided to take him up on his offer and so over winter break I asked him again, and he very graciously
said, "Anytime you call me." And so I waited for April,
which is our South Asian event this month, to
invite him, not realizing that April is the busiest
month on his schedule. Yet, because of the commitment he'd made four years ago, Mr. Khan took time off to fly all the way to
New Haven from Bombay just to be with us for the day. (audience cheering and applauding) It is this amazing quality
of going out of his way to spread happiness that will never let Mr. Khan leave our dreams. Speaking of dreams, how
many of y'all have dreamt of seeing Mr. Khan but never thought it'll translate into reality? (audience cheering) There are a few people
who need to be thanked for translating this dream into reality. First and most foremost, Master Brenzel and Timothy Dwight College,
(audience applauding) without whom, this event would have never been at the scale that it is. Mr. George Joseph, the
Office of International Affairs and the India Initiative, for the immense patience
and generous support. The South Asia Film Society for running the Shah Rukh Khan Film Festival. The Yale Office of Public Affairs for helping realize this mammoth event. My South Asian Society bod for all the hard work and
taking SAS to new levels. Our membership for being so
enthusiastic about our events, and last but not the least,
I'd like to thank my mother. And Shah Rukh Khan for
making this dream come true. (audience cheering and applauding) Ladies and gentlemen,
(audience cheering) it is our honor to present to you for the first time in
an American university, the Badshah of Bollywood,
King Khan, Shah Rukh Khan. (audience cheering) (audience cheering) - Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you,
thank you very much and. (audience cheering) Thank you, thank you very much, it's really nice to be here and-- - I love you!
- I love you too. Good evening, it's really
nice to be here, finally. Yeah, it was a long
flight, thank you, Nita, for getting me here, thank you, Isha, for having me over here. We were detained at the airport as always for an hour an a half, which was nice. - Boo!
- Yeah, it always happened. It's nice, you know, whenever I start feeling too arrogant about myself, I always take a trip to America. (audience laughing) (laughs) Yeah, the immigration guys kick the star out of stardom. (audience laughing) But, I have my small victories. They always ask me how tall I am, and I always lie and get
away, five feet 10 inches. (audience laughing) Next time I'm gonna be more adventurous. What color are you, I'm gonna say White. (audience laughing) But okay, I'm supposed
to be serious, yeah, because this is for students and kids, so first of all let me
just thank the faculty and students of the Yale University, fellows of Timothy Dwight
College and the Chubb Fellowship, and Master Jeffrey Brenzel
for being so kind, thank you. Yale Office of International Affairs and the Yale's South Asian Society, and of course Isha for
dealing and following up with the most disorganized
and incommunicative person in the world, which is me, to fix today's meeting with you all. I'm really, really happy, very humble, very honored, and thank you
for having me over here. (audience cheering and applauding) Look, I have memories of,
I've been here before. Five years ago, I was here in Yale. I was doing the song, some of the shots, the ones at the graveyard,
they were shot here. No, I'm being honest here. And it was very cold, it was I think fifth or sixth of December, it was snowing here, and I remember I was doing a song from Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna in the middle (audience cheering) and I was trying to kiss Rani Mukerji while mouthing the words,
we do that in Bollywood for all the guys who don't know how it is. Yeah, we sing songs and
we try to kiss girls at the same time.
(audience laughing) And I'm being honest, my mouth froze in the middle of (sings in Hindi). I had a locked jaw. I'm hoping my second outing
to Yale is a little better, because otherwise it
just won't sound right if I was to get stuck on. I don't know what you guys call yourself, Yaletides, Yalers? - [Audience] Yalie. - Uh, yeah, that, my, I
hope I don't get stuck at Yah and go beyond that, eh? So I was told not to dwell
too much on my movies when I spoke to you, I'm to give you an inspirational talk, tell you stuff you can think about when
you leave this room. That worries me, it gives
me performance anxiety, about 1,500 of you here hoping to hear words of wisdom from
the sexy, desirable man, (audience cheering) who couldn't kiss a girl
last time he was in Yale because it was too cold.
(audience laughing) But I am, I wanna tell you
right in the beginning, I'm not that guy. I'm telling you, I mean
I'm sexy and desirable, but I'm,
(audience cheering) but I'm not about to leave
you any more inspired than you were when you walked in here. And I read this lame joke on Google, yes I go to Google and
search everything there, even my next script I'm
searching on Google now. (audience laughing) And the joke was like this, a dying man gasping for breath, desperately gestured to the priest by his side
for a piece of paper. With great effort, he then
wrote a few words on it, handed to the priest, and passed away. The priest kept the paper in his pocket and forgot all about it
until the final service. Here, he suddenly recalled
the dead man's last scribble. Unfolding the paper, he told
the funeral congregation that he was about to read great words of inspiration from the dying man. He opened the paper, the piece of paper had these words on it, you're standing on my oxygen tube, you fool. (audience laughing) So I'm gonna be kinda like that priest. Don't expect words of wisdom from me. I'm just gonna tell you my life's journey in very simple words, and which
may not leave you inspired, but will help you survive this life. And if you can do that
kids, if you can survive, happiness, creativity and
success will follow on its own. Only I hope my words will
give you enough insight when you hear the story
that I have to tell you, that you can tell the world, world, move over, you're standing
on my oxygen tube, I need to breathe, yeah. So journeys can be defined by age and time or even by destinations
as most often they are, but I feel it's hard for me to tell you the story of my life in those terms because the concept of
time has always eluded me. The day my father died seemed longer than my entire childhood. The day I felt my first success seemed fleetingly are long,
not long enough perhaps. I wonder where it went. Even the cycle of time confounds me. I worked at night, I worked
the dark until sunrise on most days and fall asleep
as the world awakens to light. My friends call me an owl. I like to think of myself as bat, Batman, the prince of darkness. (audience cheering) Some of you would know, I
have a superhero fetish, yeah, so I keep bringing this back. Age is not my forte either. I still cannot fix my own, am I 45 or 15? If I could, would I be romancing girls, one third my age would
normally would call me uncle. I had so much fun collecting
the action figures of my last film called Ra.One, that, (audience cheering) that none of the critical reviews tanking my film affected me at all. - Boo!
- Yeah boo! - And as for my destination,
I don't think I ever knew one. I walk, I run in the
direction of my dreams, things change along
the way, people change, I change, the world changes,
and even my dreams change. I don't have a place to
arrive, I just keep doing what I know how to do the
best that I can do it. I'll probably ended up diluted, geriatric, in a wheelchair wearing a cape and tights, imaging my own flight out of this world, but of course with a
young girl in my arms. (audience laughing)
So I'll tell you the story of me, but I'll
tell it in my own way. In the language of my perceptions. In the things I think matter beyond fame, success, and the dyeing of my gray hair. I have understood that
the measure of my life lies in the expanse of
my heart's experience, and nothing else matters. If you take anything out of it, good. Otherwise, I've been told by the master, I can put on music and dance
for you on Chammak Challo. (audience cheering) Okay, so first of all,
yeah, we do that later, I know, I know, people call me to these serious places, and say
oh, fuck everything, just do the dance and go back home. But I insist you listen to me, okay? (audience laughing) I wanna tell you, I have to tell you that I learned a few big words because I was coming to Yale. (audience laughing)
On Google, of course. And I (laughs), so the first one that I'm gonna tell you about, so there are three things I wanna tell you about this evening. The first one is I'm gonna tell you to be a funambulist. Now, yeah, that's a big
word, yeah, impressed? Okay, so that means a tightrope walker. Because a lot of you
people, actually all of you, are somehow the, are going to
create things in your life. So a funambulist is
like a tightrope walker. The first one I learned,
please give me claps for this new word that I've taught Yale. (audience applauding) Okay, however I look at it
in this eventual analysis, my life has centered around my creativity. I have assimilated the world
through creative expression, and in return the world has
experienced me hopefully. I've grown to understand that on one hand, the world will always uphold creativity as the most honest feeling possible. On the other hand, the potence of fame, the glitz, the glamor,
the wealth that arise from this very recognition of creativity will always be questioned. Why do we do that? Because sometimes, it
allows us to feel better than the creator, and sometimes, it fills a void within
us, that comes about by being in awe of his or her creation. Either way, it enables us to
quantify his or her engagement, engagement with the world around him. I'm an actor. My life is a testament to this duality. George Burns said that
acting is all about honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made. And he couldn't have defined it better. Honest and fake, yes, that's what I feel as a creative person all the time. Let me tell you my schizophrenia. Creative expression comes from the deepest experience of the artist himself. A good artist cannot be
separated from his creation. Good art is honest art. A man may be an artist,
a writer, a sculpture, an actor, or a totem pole cover. Whatever he is, if what he
creates is true to himself, it becomes a vivid testimonial
to human creativity. If it lacks honesty, it is entire, its entire premise is a waste. At the same time, and quite paradoxically, a man becomes distinct from his creation from the moment it is
placed in the public domain. It no longer even belongs to him. So it comes from your gut, and it is put out there for others to accept it or throw it in the gutter. Many a nights, I have gone back home after receiving an award,
pumped up and all happy, and just to read on the Internet that what I really deserved
was the Golden Banana for the Worst Actor of the Year Award. - Boo!
- Yeah, it's called Kela award or some shit like that. (audience laughing) And I, I become heartbroken, angry, and completely convinced
that bananas and critics both should have their skins peeled and fed to the monkeys.
(audience cheering) I momentarily lose my
ability to give and close up. And here's where the trick is. When you are in this place of despair, when you walk out of this
college, this university and walk the path of life, where the world is tearing you down into yourself, there's only one thing
you can do to survive. Hang on to who you are inside. The world will be unkind to you. It will not be able to see you. You must learn at such times
to be able to see yourself. Life as a creative person is like walking on a tightrope, I have to keep balancing, I have
to keep the balance, I begin to lose myself
in my own melodrama. It is frustrating that I find myself living up to other people's interpretation of what I ought to be. And when faced with
dissent or un-appreciation, I start losing my love
affair with my own audience. It becomes a tight balance act
to keep doing what I do best and not be bothered by the reactions of the people I do it
for in the first place. I danced harder, I (mumbles) longer, and I pivoted on my road, stretched dot beneath my feet, and I try not to slip. I can slide but never fall. And all this while, I have
to keep a smile on my face and keep signing autographs
and taking pictures. And why do I do this? Because I'm a funambulist,
trying to balance my action, and exceed reaction to my naked show of who I am inside. Yet when I'm playing this
real life illusion out, more often than not, my
honest self is sitting in the audience applauding my performance, while laughing heartily
at my own stupidity. My little kids and friends here learn to love at yourself too. Never become cynical about
yourself or your life. Becoming cynical about your life is the single most
destructive thing you can do. For you have to remember,
creativity is your gift to the world, it was
never meant to be butter for anything, not even appreciation. You have to dig deep. I do it, I don't know if
I'm supposed to say this, I do it while drinking vodka and listening to really soddy songs.
(audience laughing) But you guys have to find less
destructive ways to do this. At least till you become my age. But you have to believe that you create only because this is the biggest gift you have to give to your world. And maybe that's why we
even call God a creator. It's not about the cars
or houses, it never was. These are peripherals. They never come about
because of your talent or your creative
outpourings, they come out of a business that people around you do. Those people are in the
business of butter, not you. Yours is the business
of giving and learning. Your work of art may never
be complete in your lifetime. Your fulfillment will always lie in your creative expression,
not in its product. So look beyond the
brick beds, the critics, and know within you, that
you always have a choice between butter and creation. Life as a creator will
always be a tightrope. So do not try to feed your
stomach with creativity. It is food for the soul, not your stomach. Do not be afraid to defy conventions. Do not be afraid to destroy systems that kill art and your souls. Do not be afraid to be hungry. And do not be afraid to
walk alone if necessary. Because on a tightrope, we all walk alone. And remember, if you're a
creator, you're a funambulist. And not very many people
know what it means, let alone be it, so be a funambulist as my prayer to all you
creative people here at Yale tonight.
(audience applauding) The second thing I wanna tell you, and I'll go over it fast before you get too bored, is love your punching bags. Just as my life is
centered around creativity, like every fellow human beings, it is also centered around the
wish to find happiness. Your age is the age when we most confuse happiness with gratification, so I will quite plainly tell you. If you're smart, if you
want to survive life, relentless onslaught of challenges, you will sooner or later understand that the things that make
you happy 10 years ago will end up being the
ones that make you happy when you hit the geriatrics
of age stage also. It's a good start collecting
your action figure heroes now. I have everything I could
have aspired for at your age. I have success, I have
fame, I have wealth, and I have three PlayStations.
(audience laughing) I do, I have one for the
house, one for shootings, and one just in case,
because I can have one more. (audience laughing) But none of these, but none of these have any
consequence to my happiness. The only thing that does it
is the love of my children. You don't have children. (audience laughing)
I hope. (laughs) Not yet, and if you
have, don't tell the master. But you have parents, and
you have people you love. And nothing in this world of every things means more than that, happiness, in other word, lies in the things you will never be able to count. To me it is no more
than cuddling to my kids and watching iCarly, or the Family Guy. (audience cheering) I think Family Guy's very cool. And I think iCarly's also very sweet. Most of the time I do that. The other day, my son and I stumbled upon Kama Sutra on the net. And I can tell you, that
experience was not very happy. He's 14 and he knew more
about the poses than I did. That's not fair. I want you to understand this business of happiness well because
I know at one level, all parents are actually the same. Some look stunner, some are less fun, some embarrassingly weird,
but for each parent, the bottom and the top line
of their lives is this, you kids are the greatest
source of happiness. Parents want nothing in return, just that you respect
that feeling, that's all. I'd like to narrate an
incident of my own children. First of all, let me be very clear, I do believe girls are
from the planet Venus. My girl comes from a place
of gentleness, caring, love, intelligent, and
all things beautiful. My boy comes from, I'm too
good to be your son planet. (audience laughing)
And I know, I know, this may make me very unpopular but I wanted to say this
while I was flying here, that if one thing that you
take away from this lecture tonight, I want everyone to
know, boys are obnoxious. (audience cheering) They are philandering, lying, cheating, super zealous, sneering, snobs. (audience cheering) Girls are good. (speaks Hindi) But I believe that, I like girls. I think girls are much better. I was in London shooting
and missing my kids, and I'll give you an incident. Being from the boring school of people who send writings to their kids in the hope of making
them better human beings, I send my daughter this verse from a poem by E. E. Cummings, and you
guys should read the poem, it's fantastic. And this poem is for all the girls here. I want to read this out. I do not know what it is about
you that closes and opens, only something in me understands. The voice of your eyes
is deeper than all roses. Nobody, not even the rain
has such small hands. And this for all you girls,
and the only smaller hands is a guess this little
kid who's crying there. (audience laughing) (laughs) I send this
message to my daughter and I instantly receive
this text message in return. I love it, Papa, it is beautiful. I'm going to write it in my secret diary with the secret lock and keep
it in my secret hiding place under the Katy Perry and Lady Gaga poster. I love you and I miss you. I'm too excited watching
Hunger Games tonight. (audience cheering) (audience laughing) And (laughs) feeling bad, feeling bad that I hadn't texted something meaningful to my darling son, I sent
him something I had read too. How are you my son, I wrote, I missed you. Do you know, a boy is someone that a mother loves the most? Little girls hate him. He is true to a dirt on its face, beauty with the cut on his finger. Wisdom would smell in his hair, and hope of the future
with a frog in his pocket. I love you. He replied back with one
letter of the alphabet. - [Audience] K! - Nah, it's actually
it's very close to you. It had a but in front, and says but, and he had the Y of Yale, why. (audience laughing) I mean like, why are you sending such boring messages? And of course there was an emoticon, one of those squiggly little things which I can't make out
what they're expressing. I wanted to fly to Mumbai
and hang him up side down till he look like a silly
faced emoticon himself. But I didn't, I just
smiled, and both replies made me feel love for my kids. Whatever they do as long as they're happy, it makes me happy. I speak to you guys, a parent
of two very weird kids, whatever you do, whichever mistake you make, however you react to them, your parents are your best friends. They might be boring,
silly, or stern at times, maybe some of you are
embarrassed of yours, I know my kids are of me, but if ever, any of you are in trouble, of any kind, the best friends you can always trust to watch your backs are your parents. They will always come good. I lost my parents very early in my life, and I miss them dearly, so all of you who still have yours,
don't listen to them, fool them if you must, a bit
of lying is also welcomed, (audience laughing)
but make sure you cherish what you have because when
you don't have them like me, you really miss someone to be rude to, someone to you can, someone
you can take for granted. Someone to send whatever you wish with. You miss the comfort of
being loved unconditionally. I call parents unconditional
and forgiving punching bags who feel happiest when they
get bashed up by the kids. If you want to survive
life, it's best to begin to respect the gift of love right now. As children, your first teachers of this acceptance are your parents. If you're unable to accept
the love they give you in whatever form it arise,
even if it's in the form of a tight slap across your faces, then when you become a
parent, you will end up having to learn this lesson
somewhat more harshly from teachers you give birth to. Those are your kids. And learning Kama Sutra from
my son is not a great idea, you would agree.
(audience laughing) Incidentally, he studies in the school that Isha's mom runs in India. I have to say, Ma'm, your
syllabus is quite different from the one I used to
study when I was 14. (audience laughing and applauding) She's insisting that she will get Kama Sutra in Yale also very soon. And the last bit, a fiendish
friend called failure. Whether I like it or not,
my life has also been in constant play with what
the world calls success. Success is a wonderful thing,
but it tends not be the sort of experience that we learn from. We enjoy it, perhaps we even deserve it, but we don't acquire wisdom from it. And maybe that's why it
cannot be passed on either. Me being successful does not mean my kids are going to be successful. Even if I teach them everything that I know and how to do it. So I feel that talking about success is completely a big waste of time. Instead, let me tell you very honestly, whatever happened to me happened because I've always been
terrified of failure. I don't want as much to succeed as much as I don't want to fail. I come from a very normal lower middle class family, I saw a lot of failure. My father was a beautiful man and the most successful
failure in the world. My mother also failed to
stay long enough with me to see me become a big movie star. We were quite poor actually,
and let me tell you, poverty is not ennobling
experience at all. Poverty, and tears, fear, and stress, and sometimes depression. I watched my parents go
through this several times. At an early age after my parents died, I equated poverty with failure. I just didn't want to be poor. So when I got a chance to act in films, it wasn't out of any creative desire, I say this honestly. It was poorly out of the
fear of failure and poverty. Most of the films I signed were discards of better known actors, and the producers could not find anyone else to do them. I did them all to make sure that I was working to avoid unemployment. The timing was something was right, I worked very hard, there
were other people around it, and I became a big star,
the films became big hits. Which means sometimes, a success is not the direct result of actions,
and let nobody tell you that. Success sometimes just happens, really. It is accidental, and we
have to take credit for it. I do it sometimes, surely
out of embarrassment. So I believe the true path to success is through the fear of failure. If you aren't scared enough of failing, you're unlikely to succeed. It's not pleasant to fail at stuff. All of us experienced it. You will too, if you haven't already. So use it to succeed. How I've done is a few
points I'd like to say, and then I'll end this monologue, firstly it's not the absence of failure that makes you success,
that makes success. It is your response to
failure that actually helps to buffer the reverses
that you experienced. I personally have one response
to failure, pragmatism. A recognition and believe
that if one approach does not work, then the
other will or might. Failure also gives me an incentive to greater exertion, harder work, which invariably leads to a
later success in most cases. Repeated failure has taught me to stop pretending I'm someone else. It's given me the clarity to stick to things that really matter to me instead of distracting me from my core. Failure also gets you to find
who your real friends are. The true strength of your relationships only gets tested in the
face of strong adversity. Overcoming some of my failures has made me discover that I have a strong will and more discipline than I suspected. It has helped me to have confidence in my ability to survive. Failure is an amazing teacher. There's a well known story
of this very successful man and a reporter asked him, sir, how was it that you always succeed, then
he said, right decisions. And he said, how do you
make right decisions? And he says, you know, experience. Yes, yes, how do you get so experienced? It's wrong decisions and failure. (audience laughing) So do fail, and it's alright to fail. You have to know and learn that life is not just a checklist of acquisitions, attainments, and fulfillments. Your qualifications and
CVs don't really matter. Instead life is difficult and complicated. And beyond anyone's control. The humility to know it will help you survive its vicissitudes. This is the second big
word that I've learned. (audience cheering and applauding) But I don't want to sound dark. My hope for all of you is that you retain a lifelong love of
learning, that you never cease to dream exciting
and inspiring dreams, and when you fail, you
don't, and you fail, you fail well enough to
succeed the next time. Don't be afraid of being afraid. Be afraid of not facing
your fears and failures. As I was coming here,
and this is my dream, I was telling the press
outside when I walked in here, I sent a message to my little daughter who's 11 and a half, my son 14, and I said it's one of the most beautiful institutions I've seen in my life. Genuinely, you guys are
fortunate to be studying here. (audience applauding) And I really wish my kids
are good enough, like you, all you young boys and
girls and all the parents who've helped them do this,
are good enough to reach here and study and get this opportunity. So I wrote to my daughter, and said, so pretty and nice and beautiful, I wish you could come and study here, and she sent me back a long
message as she always does. Is it pretty, Papa? Is it nice? Is it snowing there? Because I told her last time
I was here it was snowing. And my son sent me one alphabet. K.
(audience laughing) Which I have understood
when you extend means OK. And for some reason he's also written, Papa, Chuck Norris has trained his dog to pick up its own poo.
(audience laughing) Because Chuck Norris will
not take shit from anyone. (audience laughing and applauding) Remember all boys and girls, that you're fortunate enough to be funambulists, you have an amazing set of punching bags, your parents cherish them always, and failure is your fiendish
friend, keep him close. And as my son sent a message, don't take no shit from anybody. (audience cheering)
God bless you. Thank you very much.
(audience applauding) Thank you, you're all very kind, and I wish you all the best in life. Thank you very much. Thank you. Can I come back now? (audience cheering) - You're right here.
- Oh am I? - Yeah.
- Are you sure? (audience cheering) - I love you!
- I love you, Khan! (audience cheering) (guests laughing) - Hello everyone again. I've discovered, I've discovered that if ever become a movie star, you can't see a thing up here.
- You can't. - Yeah no, not a thing. My name is Jeff Brenzel,
I'm the dean of admissions here at Yale, these are my people. (audience cheering and applauding) I'm the master of Timothy Dwight College, a lecture in the department of philosophy and I keep the flame
for the Chubb Fellowship which I'm incredibly
happy to say has brought SRK to New Haven.
(audience cheering) So I just wanna tell him right now in front of God and everybody here that I think his chances
for admission here to Yale would be pretty good.
(audience cheering) And we're hoping he's gonna have time to drop by the office to fill out the application before he leaves. So here with me to ask a few questions is Nikhil Sud who is born and brought up in New Delhi, India, and
attended St. Columba's School, which was SRK's school. He then came to Yale where
he received his Bachelor's in economics in 2010,
economics, just like SRK. It gets more eerie as you go. While at Yale, actually he
departed from Shah Rukh's career and he founded Yale Hindi Debate, a national level competition
in the United States that takes place entirely
in the Hindi language, and it's now in its fifth year. He's currently a student
at the Yale Law School. (audience applauding) We're going for a dual language country here sooner or later. While he hasn't yet charted
out his career plans, he did tell me that he's got one goal, to get Mr. Shah Rukh Khan
to follow him on Twitter. (audience cheering) - No.
- Not yet. He hasn't achieved this goal yet. Then we have Sarika Arya who graduated from Yale College in
2011 with a double major in ethics, politics, and economics, and also theater studies. Her parents emigrated
from India to America, where she and her brother
were born and raised until they moved to
London for several years, while here at Yale, Sarika
studied international affairs, human rights activism, and the use of theater to impact social change. She's currently working as
a Woodbridge Hall Fellow at the Yale Office of
International Affairs. Next year she's off to
London School of Economics. So please welcome the guests. (audience applauding) We have some questions,
everyone had their own particular question that
they wanted to ask Shah Rukh, and we're gonna start with Nikhil. - Hello, Mr. Khan. I felt you spoke really truly inspiringly about valuing creativity,
and about facing your fears. My concern is, I feel there
are many students out there who are passionate about creativity and are also generally brave people who can face their fears,
but in spite of this, they choose safer, more
traditional, non-creative paths in life, because
they feel the creative path is simply too risky no
matter how brave they are. And even though they love
creativity for its own sake, not for buttering it for money, they feel they still need to be able to pay for the bills and
that might not happen. So for a person who is devoted to the arts but due to certain practical
realities of the world, selects a non-creative
path, is it possible for such a person to lead a
truly happy, fulfilling life? On a personal note, I'm really worried, because I'm a huge fan
of creative writing. And I did a lot of that
in school and at college, but now I've chosen law school. And I console myself by saying, so what if you're not
writing movies or TV shows, you'll still be writing
legal briefs and legal memos, (audience laughing)
and I think, you know, while on some
level, that makes sense, I think it's an extremely
depressing thought. And I do feel like somebody's
stepping on my oxygen tube, but I fear that the alternative might feel like somebody simply cut off my oxygen tube because I
won't be able to pay my bills. So my question really is, and I ask this on behalf of everyone
like me, can I be happy? And if so how? (everyone laughing and applauding) - An easy one.
- An easy one, yeah, yeah. Nikhil, let me tell you,
you've got problems, dude. - [Nikhil] I know.
(audience laughing) - I tell you how I've done it. I did theater, and I truly believe in being very creative, very artistic, and a very serious actor at times. I really do. When I see a lot of work
that is being done around by other actors in my
own country and outside, I feel envious at times that
I've not been able to do that. Because like you said, when I came on to Mumbai, and I will
say this to all the kids, that yes, surviving is the most, that's what the whole speech was, that you have, I'll
teach you how to survive. I'm not gonna give you any thoughts about, that, listen it's alright
to go on (mumbles) and do your writing, creative writing, whether anyone reads it or not. No, it's important that people read it. It's important that it
becomes a best seller. As a matter fact, I very shamelessly say I am the most capitalist human being that you will ever find
on the face of this Earth. I truly believe that
you need to find a place where you can make the
choices that you want to make. You cannot just say,
you know, I had a friend who's a creative writer,
and who fortunately, still is not a lawyer, and,
(audience laughing) he wanted to write books,
and he's working here in America, in New York actually. And he asked me own day, his father died, and he said, you know I wanna write books. I wanna write creative stuff on spirituality and goodness, and I don't want to write anything else. How am I gonna survive? My father's dead, my
mother's not being able to look after me, and I said, you go down, and start working
in advertising company, where you started writing, I do remember, you know we, this is a
joke we had in college, I don't know if it's still here. It was an innerwear ad, with, like a Calvin Klein underwear model and you write, it's for everyone, every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Which, if you write this
stuff, you write it, and earn the money, pay your bills, don't let them cut your oxygen tube out. But, after you are in
that position of choice, don't misuse it, and that's the one thing that I was, I decided to do. I do lot of advertising, lot of people, question me on the uncreative
bits of work that I do. I do, I think out of 10 things that I do, I think seven of them
are highly uncreative. Highly uncreative. And very disturbing at times. I have a big bathroom now. I sit there and cry after
having done those things. I go, I generally do, I'm not lying. I want kids to know this,
that yeah, I do that, I get, I'm like I don't wanna do this, but I take the money from that, and I would like to be able to create a production house, a
filmmaking institution, which would do the creative stuff which I wanted to do when I was 25. It may get a little late, it may happen when I'm 50 or 55, may not have happened when I dreamed of it at 26, 27. But I'm sure that I will
make the right choices. So please, all you
kids, do not get rallied by anyone who tells you, it's wonderful to be creative and poor and hungry, no. You can't be that, you have to survive, you owe it to your parents,
you owe to your life. Be well, have good cars,
have a good television, have three PlayStations if you need, but when you get into
that position of choice, make sure you don't
cheat with your choices. So that's one thing. So do your legal briefs. And on the side, when you
have become this really famous wonderful lawyer,
saving convicts and, (audience laughing)
and criminals, go into that bathroom,
cry a bit that you saved another criminal today, but with the money that you earn from that mafia Don, write, write a good story.
(audience cheering) - Alright, Sarika.
- Alright. - So India's a country
of hundreds of languages, cultures, religions, customs, and so on. And as a result, the country
grapples with divisiveness on many social issues, but your films have created a truly
devoted and united fan base that's united in their love
of you, Shah Rukh Khan. And they're,
(audience cheering) they're united across ethnic
and national boundaries, even outside of India,
yet at the same time, some of your films do
deal with social issues. So, My Name is Khan, it
confronted racial profiling after 9/11, and Chak De! India discussed bigotry and sexism. - Those are the stories that I write. - There you go. But at the same time,
you also do have films that are sheer entertainment. So what is it about your
work that appeals to and unites audiences
that are normally at odds with each other, and also, do you feel that films have, or
maybe they already have, a role in discussing or
examining social issues? - I mean, I think they have. But if they make it their prime concern, then they don't remain film, they don't remain entertainment. I say this to everyone,
it's a little saying, that messages are for the
postbox, post offices, they're not for entertainment. You don't give messages
through entertainment. I'm a big believer of that. You need to entertain
people, two and a half hour in dark room, come back,
have fun, enjoy yourself, and entertainment can be
sad, it can be morbid, it can be bright, it can be colorful, it can be as silly as some
of the films that I do. But I truly believe that
the reason, I think, I was analyzing it, I keep analyzing it because everyone keeps asking me how did this happen that
people everywhere like you, and I cannot go beyond the answer that it has to do with my dimples. (Jeffrey laughing)
(audience cheering) It's the most intellectual answer I've been able to give myself. - I understand.
- Yeah, yeah. - That's it.
- Are you good? And you see how far you
go with these dimples. - [Sarika] I'll keep you posted. - But I think the reason that my cinema, or the kind of films, I think
I got a little fortunate that in the '90s when I started working, there was a time when, '80s was the time of a lot of aggressive films and ugly bell bottoms and big collars and strange hairstyles in Indian cinema, and somehow the younger generation, which was kind of me also
that time I was 24, 23, they all wanted to have a
little more love amidst them, not anti-establishment
work, not anti-social work, they just wanted to have feeling of love. And I think I did a
lot of films like that. So whether it was Dilwale
Dulhania Le Jayenge, or,
(audience cheering) or Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.
(audience cheering) And I think as cliched as it may sound, but it makes me believe that love really is the universal language. So you can be in a country
with 100 difficult languages as you said, and I come
down to Yale, to America, to London, I go to South America, and people in Germany who don't
speak our language at all, and you know, they all
seem to like that cinema. I asked one lady, a 60
year old lady who actually took the first Indian film to Germany. She used to work for a
big television studio and I asked her, I was
sitting with her at night, and I said, why do you wanna do Hindi, why do you guys like Hindi films? I go and shoot in
Germany, and they're like hundreds of Germans who love our films. And they don't speak Hindi at all. They just say, achtung, achtung,
achtung, no Hindi at all. Nothing. They make these guttural sounds
but they don't speak Hindi. (audience laughing) And you know, they look very imposing, because from the outside, we all have preset notions of each country and country, people from there. And I asked them, I said,
why do you like Hindi films? Why do you like this kind of cinema? They told me that I have
a button to drive a car. I push on the bottom
(imitates a revving sound), the car starts. I have a button to make coffee. I have a button to go up and down. In Germany, we didn't
have a button to cry. And you give us that button,
your films give us that button. And I think, you know, and
so I equate these two things, I think love, as beautiful
as it is, also makes you cry. And in a good way, sometimes in a bad way. (audience laughing) But I think the togetherness of this, I think the whole human community around the world, you'll
find two universal truths, they all love and they all cry. And I think if your work, if your writing, if your job can deal with
that without knowing it, you'll be bringing social changes. You don't need to make
an attempt, I think, you just need to say the truth and say, there's a little about
love, for a father-son, for a father-daughter, for a man-woman, for a mother-son, for a teacher-student, it's a little about crying. And when you write stories like that or show stories like that
or incidents like that, I think it just unites us because we all do go into that bathroom and cry. So we all have that bathroom and I think we all feel like loving, so I think yeah, I think if you keep it as
simple as loving and crying, each cinema, each theater, everything will have its social impact. - [Sarika] Thank you.
(audience applauding) - The man who gave the
Germans permission to cry. (audience laughing) Alive. That's fantastic. Shah Rukh, honestly, if it
weren't for my good friends here, so many South Asian students
and faculty here at Yale, I wouldn't know your films. South Asian Film Society
has been spreading the gospel here, a lot of
people are becoming attracted to the cinema, but of
course I came not as these two students but as an
outsider to Indian cinema. I'd heard of something called Bollywood, and I fell into the
trap that many of us do of thinking that actually meant something, that it was, in some kind
of relation to Hollywood. And then when I first
started watching the films, I realize, there's no, there's
no Hollywood take off here, that's not what's going on. They, the films were like
nothing I'd ever seen. They had their own language,
they had their own world, they had their own way of seeing things. Mostly, I have to say this
incredibly enthusiasm for life. They were fantastically original. Which was just a startling experience. I didn't know of the
existence of this world. So I wanted to ask you,
what do you see happening as Bollywood, as Indian
film, as Indian cinema, you're always doing something new, but, that influence is expanding, is moving out into the world in some
very remarkable ways. Is Indian movie making,
influencing Western movie making? Is Western movie making
creeping into Indian cinema? Are these ships passing in the night or are they talking to each other? I'm dying to know what
you think about this. - Yeah, I think, you know what, our cinemas are very unique and I remember hearing Quentin Tarantino at Cannes, and he said the only reason,
and I just wanna point out, that it's the only film
industry in the world which has survived Hollywood.
- Yes. - Yeah, all the film industries, whether it's Japan, or
any place in Europe, the local cinema kind
of has been taken over by the more popular commercial, wonderful Hollywood cinema
that is made, I'm a big fan. India has survived that. We still make the largest number of films, and the reason for that is
that we still believe in stars. We believe that they're
people who can lead us. We don't think a movie star
is just a professional. We look up to him or her. We think of him or her as role models. I'm the wrong one, don't ever do that, I, I've been hiding in the
gully and smoking and stuff. (audience laughing)
I'm a bad boy. But the whole system of
looking up to someone, or trying to find a hero, has
made Indian cinema survive. Having said that, our
stories are very unique, very culturally (mumbles) and of course we have this uniqueness
of what used to happen in the '60s in Hollywood,
we have musicals. We break into a song and dance any time. So, yeah, yeah, I, he
was saying it so kindly. (audience cheering) He was being so wonderful and
said, I was startled by them. It's bloody shocking.
- I was. - What we do on screen, yes, I know. Like (gasps), why are they dancing? We do that, and actually, our films are like a variety show, a cabaret. Because, like she said,
we have hundred languages, we still live in one family households. So the grandmom's there,
the grandchild's there, the great grandchild is there, and all of us watching cinema is the only escape route we have in our country. We don't have skiing slopes,
we don't have car racing, we've got a little bit
of sports coming in, our television just
started, so what happens is you need to have that, hey, listen, I'm not bothered about life, for this two and a half hour
I'm going to be overrode by this fun and the grandmom says I want to hear actually
something spiritual. So we put spiritual. And she says, I wanna see this cool guy with dimples dancing. So okay cool guy.
(audience laughing) And you say, I need to be startled, so here, startling you. So we put everything in it. And unabashedly so, and
happily so, and celebrate life because life, I think, has all of it, life has never been that, you don't sing. You sing while shaving and (mumbles), and there's no isolation
of emotions in real life. Everything is happening together. And it's wonderful when
I see Western cinema that isolates emotion,
there's more linear, there's more story telling, there's more character-driven stuff,
but I think our cinema, because it's just
celebration and celebrator, it makes you feel a
little attracted to it. You know, you say, okay,
let it be, no, let's move, let's sit down and
watch this and have fun. A lot of technology from Hollywood, people like myself and the
younger actors and directors want to take it on, because
I think technically, the Western cinema's about
40 to 50 years ahead of us, and we need to bring it to India. That's the only way we'll
be able to come down, come up in the international market. We are about 0.02% of world
market as far as economics go. We did make the maximum number of films, but in terms of economics,
we are very small. The only way we can do that is not change the language of our films, the technology, and the technique of story telling. We do it in a, we have,
we do films in three acts. We have an interval. And I was, I have to
tell you this incident, I made a film call Asoka which was about (mumbles) Buddha, it's
a great film, I thought, and unfortunately, sorry
to have to mention it here, it released on 9/11 so it kind of tanked, didn't do well and I was showing it to an English set of audience
just before I came here, and the film went on and
on, and it's really long, we make three hour long films. Before they all entered, I
had all these British people saying, why do you guys have interval? What does it mean? Why should we have break interval here? It breaks the whole
sequencing of a story tell. I said I'm sorry, but we have an interval, after one and a half hours, they were like holding my hand, why don't you
guys have the interval now? (audience laughing) So our cinema looks after
everybody's wants and desires, as in when they crop up, but we, (audience cheering and applauding) but yeah, there is a whole mix together. I think technically, if we do better, we'll have more world cinema audience going watching it, and story wise I think our stories are
about hope and simple hopes. And they're not too outlandish, though it seems so sometimes. Everyone tells me Indian
cinema's unrealistic. But it's as realistic as the president of the United States
sitting in Air Force One and going and destroying the meteor. Wow, yeah, it can happen. As unrealistic, and I think
the story should remain culturally bound in
terms of the simple hopes and simple ideologies,
while the technology, I think we should start taking and we are already from Hollywood. Lot of studios have
now opened up in India, and there's this huge give and take and it's fantastic for
world cinema I think. I'm here in America and I'm not doing it because I'm here, but I
genuinely want to thank all the studios in
Hollywood, because I've been interacting with them in
the last five, six years. My Name is Khan was actually made by Fox, and they were kind enough to release it as we would really like it
to be shown to everyone. So there's this huge
synergies that are happening, and I think yeah, Indian
cinema's really gaining from it and hopefully one day you'll not be so startled by our films. (audience cheering and applauding) - So just some advice for
my fellow White people who are not Germans in the audience, because I know that you haven't
watched enough of his films. This is something to go
home now and do and I hope it inspires you that you
heard a little bit about it. You will want to relax,
you'll want to have a very comfortable couch,
you'll wanna be surrounded by some nice food and
some family and friends. - And a grandmom.
- And a grandmom. Grandmom should come visit
while you watch Indian films. Nikhil, another question? - Okay, so you've achieved so much in so many different fields. You're globally successful
and adored actor and producer, you own a cricket team,
you're a philanthropist, and I think you're a real
role model for all of us. My question is, what next? And I know that you
maintain that you always wanna keep making people
smile, but is there a specific kind of film or project that you really want to
do and haven't yet done? I suppose what I'm asking
is, what is the biggest, most exciting, most motivating thing on your to do list if you have one? - No, Nikhil, I've been, I'm sorry, I've been just, like I
said in the beginning, that I just work towards my
dreams and I just keep running, I don't know where I'm gonna stop, and things happen along the way. I started wanting to be a soccer player. I did economics, I did
mass communications, my Master's in that, and everyone thought I'll do something intelligent
but I became an actor. I came to Mumbai for a year
because my parents died. I told my wife, I said,
we just go for a year, come back, I told all my friends
that I'll be back in a year because they kick me out of this, 21 years and I'm still there. So things just happen and I realize the core is really, and my
job, and as an entertainer, and people may look down upon it at times, people will be happy with it, some people may not appreciate it,
but I, my bottom line is whatever it takes for me to
do to make you feel happy. So if you want me to say
a dialog, I'll do it, you want me to take off my
pants and dance, I'll do it. (audience cheering) See, as long as, as long
as, I'm being very honest. I can turn around and give you a big spiel about what next and the kind of stuff that I wanna do, take cinema to the next, stretch the boundaries and extend the reach of Indian cinema
to global recognition, but no, I just wanna make you smile. So if you tell me, I
have this huge dignity of labor thing in me, that whatever I do, I've done street theater and I've done big films like Ra.One. It was a dream to bring visual
effects into the country. My kids wanted to see a superhero film. So I do all that and I never think of the business behind it to be honest. And whenever I come, wherever I go, whichever place I'm in, if people tell me, listen Shah Rukh, can you, can you say a line from this film? And I would, I say yeah
if that makes you happy. If somebody tells me can you
just get out of this party, that'll make me very happy,
I say, I'm gonna go, fine. I don't have, yeah I wanna make a studio, I wanna make a stadium, I want
to make my cricket team win. (audience cheering) I've a lot of thoughts, a lot of dreams but through all this, I hope I'm able to make people smile doing that. Even while I lose with the cricket team, I hope people smile a
lot while I'm losing. So that's the only thing. And I think if you keep
it basic and simple, that's the best way, I think, so yeah. I know, I want to make an animation film. I want to remain young
to be able to romance with my son's girlfriend.
(audience laughing) I've got some stupid ideas too. - [Nikhil] Thank you. - [Jeffrey] Alright,
Sarika, one more quickly. - Alright, so your appeal is universal and it inspires astounding devotion. In fact, many of the
audience members here today have traveled far distances to see you for this short appearance,
and also we'd love to thank you for traveling
half way around the world to see just us.
(audience applauding) You talked a little bit about
this fan base that you have among the Germans, and I
heard it's also in Poland, so maybe you could talk a little bit about what's up with that? I also know that you evoke a frenzy that some people would go so
far as to describe as religious and I was wondering how
do you feel about that and how does it affect your
mission to create honest art? And do you think it's sustainable? If all of this ends, how do you think you'll come to terms with just being your honest self, just being human? - I'd shoot myself.
(audience laughing) No, no.
- I hope not. - [Jeffrey] Okay, so
it's not ending, then. - I truly believe, I'd be very honest, I didn't know how it started. I truly believe this is never ending. When you say this, that you know, you have these people in Poland and you have in Germany
and Japan, in Malaysia, South East Asia, I have woken up, I was shooting a film called
One 2 Ka 4 many years ago (audience cheering)
in Indonesia and Malaysia. I was very tired and I went down to this small little house and
I slept on the chair. When I woke up, I had this
40 family members sitting. They were all looking at me like this, so I got up and I was very awkward, because I woke up in some
unknown person's house. When I sleep, when anyone sleeps, you don't look to good (snores). - [Sarika] Something like that. - It looks very, very,
very un-rock star like. I was, they had their hands like this, they had a little temple with
my picture in their house. I was really taken aback
that the stuff that I do, which is mostly monkeying around, falling down, singing, just having fun for eight or 10 hours a day on my sets actually invokes this kind of reaction. And the first thing I
realized, what you asked me, is that the one thing I will never ever do is take myself seriously. I will never try to
intellectualize what I do. I would like to be as silly as I was when I was four, I would like to do exactly the same thing
that I did 20 years ago. Because when I go back 20 years ago, there's a new set of
audience which is as silly and comes and appreciates it. Right, so you have to keep on doing that. I've never tried to take
myself more seriously. Like I was reading it here
when they were showing that I've got hundred
awards or being nominated for so many, I've got the Padma Shri and I have this wonderful fellowship, but I'm not going to
ever become more serious and intellectual because I have all this. I'm going to do exactly the same stuff, I'm going to have fun, and that's why I believe it'll never end. It'll never end because the day I start intellectualizing and
taking myself seriously, my art seriously, and what
you asked me just now, how are you going to make sure that your art is serious and honest, I think it's going to be honest as long as I'm silly and
stupid and childlike, and innocent and naive and an idiot. As soon as I become an intellectual and I become serious about this stuff, I think I'm gonna lose it. I'm gonna be sitting somewhere, in some big hall giving a lecture about how art should be the
most important thing on, and I don't wanna do that. I just wanna keep on
being stupid, that's it. I think, to all you kids, please, yeah, just be silly and idiotic.
(audience applauding) - [Sarika] I can live with that. - So, speaking of which. You've been sitting
around for a long time. You had a long plane ride to get here. (audience cheering) If you like moving around a little bit? (audience cheering) So.
- Can I have a mic? Because you know what,
because he's not been introduced to Hindi cinema properly. I'm gonna make him say a few dialogs.
- You've got a mic. - No I want, I want a handle one if I can. - Do we have a mic? Can we have it, just any mic? Because he's got sound,
we just need a mic. - Do you wanna fake it?
- Any mic. - Take off your shirt!
- No, it's okay. Don't tell him to do that, it's not. (audience cheering) I'm telling you to be
silly, don't be that silly. - I've made that mistake. (audience laughing) Alright, there's no mic. - Okay, I'm gonna, because he's. - [Staff] Mic, we've got a mic here. Microphone. - Oh yeah, thank you. - Oh, we got a microphone. There we go. (audience cheering) (tapping on mic) - So, because he's been
introduced to Indian cinema, I'm gonna teach him, I'm gonna teach him some
of the Indian dialogs that I've done from some of my films. (audience cheering) So you have to say it after me, okay. I'm gonna teach you a bit of Hindi. So the next time you watch a Hindi film, you'll understand it a little better. - I do speak German.
- Oh yeah, okay. (Jeffrey laughs)
Achtung. Alright, so I do a dialog
from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai? (audience cheering) - Don!
- Or Don. Okay, I do Don. Don is a film I play the bad guy in, so they're saying you
should do it from Don. - Am I bad guy?
- You're the bad guy. - I'm another bad guy. - So we need to, here, just stand here. (audience cheering) That's, I'm gonna use that in my next film when I'm playing a bad guy. That's cool, yeah.
- We're good, yeah? - (speaks in Hindi) Too long? - Right.
- Okay (laughs). Okay, so I'm gonna do the
dialog, I'll do the actions, you just do the actions with me, okay? And just keep moving your mouth so it look like you're speaking. - I can do that. - (speaks in Hindi)
(audience cheering) They love you. (speaks in Hindi) That's a makeshift gun.
- I see. - Do you think, was he cool
being Don or not, tell me. (audience cheering) I'm gonna request him, because, okay okay, okay! See, that's how Hindi films are, they make you silly in a second. I'm gonna request everyone,
you guys also come on stage. I'll do a little Chammak
Challo for you guys. (audience cheering) You'll also have to do it with us. - We have Yale's best
dancer, Natalia Cosla. ("Chammak Challo") Let's do a little background dancing. (singing in Hindi) (audience cheering and applauding) - Good bye everyone. - I'm gonna be one second, guys, thank you very much. Thank you, Nita. Before I go, I really
wanna thank all of you for, genuinely, from
the bottom of my heart. This is the most fun I've had
in the last two, three months. So, thank you, Nita. Thank you, Isha. And all you wonderful
people for coming here and being so patient.
(audience cheering) I feel with all, because they told me this is a serious evening, so I've really, really been intellectually
stimulated by this dance. (audience laughing) I hope you guys have also
been, and I'm so glad you take little children into Yale also. But thank you so much. I can't take you all enough
for your kindness and goodness. God bless you. And you'll do well, thank you.
