SRK's Empowered India

Shah Rukh Khan in today's Indian Express on "India empowered to me is:"

As far as I am concerned, India is one hundred per cent empowered. Maybe if you take a high-end view, then you may feel that our country is still to be empowered. But I’m an optimistic guy, I view the whole thing from the ideology of Indians.

You’ve got to know that for any regular guy from Ulhasnagar, getting good products at affordable prices is an index of the country being self-sufficient and empowered. The ideology of India has always been to create its own. Maybe we make cheaper versions of cars or mixies but we never look outside.

As I see it, our grass is as green as anyone else’s. That’s why I won’t ever do a Hollywood film. [. . .]

Personally, I’ve a problem with the power of information. I’m not an authority on it but I think somewhere down the line, information has been a huge downside. We can access information anytime but we don’t know what to do with it. So, information creates bottlenecks. We create a flyover to Nehru Place but forget to connect it to Surya Hotel. Likewise, information as a tool is good but its utility is still unclear. Give a person what he wants but don’t bore him. Make avenues for him to use that information, give him the opportunity to make his life better with that information.

[. . .]

For me, cinema is all about entertainment. And if I can empower within the framework of empowerment then I’m content.

[. . .]

I empower people with smiles. As long as I can provide two hours of complete fun, I’m happy. Maybe I only reach inside, make you mushy or soft on emotion but I promise to make it so basic that it becomes the most prominent. I love to be sweetly mushy and want all my audience to smile in relief, at inane stuff or smile. If for two hours, I can make them forget that they had to wade for two hours to reach home during the Mumbai floods, I’m happy. I’ve done my job of empowering them to smile.

Make no mistake, I stand for empowerment of escapism.

No, no SRK, you are too modest. Make no mistake, you also stand for empowerment of crap.