We may be lions outside but at home every one of us including me is a bheegi billi (wet cat) in front of our wives says Shah Rukh Khan to JYOTHI VENKATESH

D’decor has re-launched their brand with Shah Rukh and Gauri Khan. D’décor, which has been on the forefront of the furnishings industry, with their innovative products and trendy designs, had roped-in none other than the stylish Gauri, who is known to be extremely choosy for her associations to endorse the brand along with her husband, Shah Rukh Khan.

Here’s what Shah Rukh has got to say about his wife Gauri and what made them become the brand ambassadors for D Décor and his role as the husband at home at Mannat.

“I am very protective about my family and will let my wife work on a project only if I am quite comfortable with the people with whom she is working. It was Karan Johar who got this project for us.

It is for the first time that my wife Gauri has modeled for a product. I have known Gauri for the last 36 years though we have been married for the last 32 years.

What I genuinely like about her is the fact that she looks after the house like a very ordinary house-wife. She has always been very supportive of me and our family without speaking too much.

“It was a big responsibility for me to do the ad with Gauri, because she is not a typical professional and this is the first time that she has faced the camera for an ad.

I was quite nervous to tell the truth though I have done several ads till date, because I wanted the ad to be good. Every decision at Mannat is taken by each of us and I do not decide on behalf of my wife Gauri, who did the ad because she had an interest in the product and not because I forced her to.

No husband in the world can force his wife. Can you? We may be lions outside but at home every one of us including me is a bheegi billi (wet cat) in front of our wives.

“My work has always been separate from my personal life. My personal life has always been quite different from my filmi image. Gauri and I are as real as real can be. We are regular though my job has a lot of irregularities.

When my kids were small they used to think that I and all the actor friends of mine are TV actors because they used to watch all of us on the TV in various promos. It is only now that they realize that it is a job that I am doing.

The best thing about my family- that is my wife Gauri as well as my kids is that they are not my fans at all. Sometimes they like my work, sometimes they do not.

“Gauri has designed our house. If you ask me how much I am involved with the furnishings in my house, I‘d be frank enough to confess that I would not know purple will match with off white but I can definitely appreciate it when Gauri shows it.

I did not give Gauri any tips on how to face the camera when we did the ad. She does not do it like a job or a profession. She does not have to. I cannot say that Gauri and I will work together as a team in the future too.

"Gauri decided to model for this product because she has been using the product and Ajay and Sanjay Arora of D Décor are our family friends. I have no hand in convincing her to do the ad.

What comes off as a conception and what comes ultimately can be different but all said and done, I am happy that Gauri and I can have a home video and what’s more we are also being paid for it. Though Gauri has worked in the ad, I get both the cheques.

“I realise the importance of my parents now when I have my own kids. A lot in my life has been shaped by my parents. I do not look at anyone else as my idols in life except my parents because it is they who have shaped me to be what I am in life today.

My son Aryan is not acting in any film. The media reports which stated that Aryan will act in a film are all wrong. The only film in which he had acted till date was Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham because Karan Johar asked me to get him to act.

“For the last ten years I have been crying hoarse that regional films are wonderful. Primary importance has to be given to the regional films, especially Marathi films because they do not have big budgets and there is no market for them like Hindi films.

I am telling this not as a politician but as a filmi guy. I see all regional films, whether they are Marathi, Tamil or Malayalam or even Bhjojpuri. I hope they are released with subtitles in English so that a large number of people can watch them.

“I can understand when someone talks in English but the problem is that I cannot speak in Marathi or any other regional language like say Malayalam or for that matter Tamil though I have acted in Kamal Hassan’s Tamil film Hey Ram because I have a problem.

I tried to learn Tamil when I was working with Kamal Haasan in Hey Ram but gave up after I learnt to tell a couple of sentences Neenga Eppadi Irukkeenga, Thanni Kondu Vaa (How are you? Bring Water for me) etc.

I am very impressed with all the actors who are able to work in regional films after learning those languages but I am sorry I cannot. As a producer I would love to make regional films in languages including in Marathi.

“I lost weight after working for Ra One because I had to wear the super hero suit made out of silicone for the film for 40 out of the 70 days when the film was being shot, for at least eight to nine hours a day.

I could not even eat or drink with the wires all over my body. The technical inputs that we got for the film in London were of high caliber. We did an additional shoot for nine days in London, with Karan supervising the work.

I just try to enjoy acting. I do not think that I will stop enjoying acting till I get tired of it, because very few people are lucky to get the opportunities to do what they really want to do and face new challenges every day in their lives , like I do.

I get to visit places which I have not even dreamt of. As long as I am excited about doing a thing, I will continue to be happy.

How happy are you as an actor who is saddled with the romantic image? I ask SRK. “I am amazed when people come up to me and tell me that I am the King of Romance.

I’d rather be known as King Khan than as King of Romance any day. Frankly speaking, I do not think that romance is my forte. Out of the 75 films in which I have acted till date as far as my career is concerned, I think only 5 were purely romantic. It does not mean that I do not want to be hailed as a romantic hero.

It is equally wrong to simplify Hrithik Roshan just as a dancing hero, when he is such a damn good actor. Similarly I would not like to be confined to just romantic roles as an actor, when I have experimented with almost every kind of role, whether it was that of a maniac in Darr or a romantic hero in DDLJ.

I remember at a party Hema Malini had hosted for her film Dil Aashna Hai, Shah Rukh had sashayed up to me only to introduce his newlywed wife Gauri after he had brought her to Mumbai from Delhi.

My only complaint to Shah Rukh Khan, who has become the Numero Uno star, is that though he used to complain to me that I was too busy as a journalist chasing other stars for gossip to bother to drop in at his office for a cup of tea, he does not have time to call me even once today, either to his spacious bungalow or his sprawling office, once in a while.

Yes. But then times have changed and these are the vagaries of stardom, whether you like it or not, my dearies!