(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Shah Rukh Khan is at his charming best as he explains the value he brings to the brands he endorses during his recent visit to Dubai Photo by Shihab/ Khaleej Times
His is the face that has launched umpteen successful brands. The face that can turn the most mundane product into a best seller (cue Fair and Handsome) and transform even an average movie into a blockbuster overnight. His name alone is enough to send fans into a frenzy. And drag thousands into the theatre on the opening day of a movie. In Dubai last week to launch a real estate property aimed at the “average middle class” buyer Shah Rukh Khan was at his charismatic best working his trademark dimpled charm over prospective buyers who had gathered over a gala dinner at the Madinat Jumeirah assuring them that the “good times are back for Dubai.” And for all the sceptics out there who may scoff at the validity of celebrity endorsements one look at the assembled guests many of whom were swooning over the fact that they were sharing the same room as their favourite movie icon would have been enough to convince them otherwise.
It may be tagged as King Khan’s Design but if you are hoping to stay in a house “designed” by the Badshah of Bollywood by buying into one of the “affordable” apartments or town houses that are part of the Royal Estates by Shah Rukh Khan you will be sadly disappointed. As the Don himself makes it very clear he is “just the brand ambassador” for the project. “When you are promoting a product – it is not as if Hyundai (the car he endorses) tells me to design the car – the car is already there….” But rest assured “you can still feel like me like a King” since the apartments are designed by Gauri Khan in association with celebrity architect Tony Ashai. And perhaps as an indication of Gauri’s expensive tastes he tells buyers to “keep feeling your pocket cause she is expensive!”
Gauri’s Designs
While Gauri made a blink and miss appearance at the media launch ahead of the gala dinner her involvement in the Royal Estates project as an interior designer is far from brief. While initially hesitant to talk much about her role Khan went on to credit her with turning Mannat (their Mumbai residence) into “an amazingly warm and artistic house.” The same quality he says will be reflected in her work at Royal Estates as well.
“Our (Gauri and mine) upbringing is not very elitist. We come from a lower middle class background we’ve see the world grown to like it and find beauty in it” he said. As for any talk about husband and wife stepping into each other’s territory Khan is very clear: “She doesn’t tell me how to act and I don’t tell her how to design! Because if I acted how she told me to it will be nonsense…”
A Class Apart
The 2.3 million square feet gated community Royal Estates where the price of an apartment starts at Dhs450000 and a townhouse costs Dhs1.6million upwards is not the kind of property one would expect to find King Khan and his family ensconced in by any stretch of imagination. But the actor was at pains to reinforce his own “lower middle class background” while talking to investors during the evening.
“I didn’t have a house till I was in my early 30s” he said talking about his first property on Carter road. “I still cherish it. The beauty of it was that for a Delhiite the house had a 360-degree view of the sea. Even from the toilets….”
“I want to give it to my son one day - but I will sell it to him” Khan jokes going on to add that “but I will not sell it to him as cheap as Royal Estates!”
“I come from a lower middle class background in Delhi and all I wanted in my life was to own a house. Allah has been very kind to me and I went on to make a house that is bigger than my needs” he said.
Mass Appeal
His Bollywood career has endowed him with a larger-than-life quality that his fans look up to. Even when he is playing an average middle-class man like in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi or Chennai Express fans walk away with an image of Shah Rukh Khan as a superstar. And Khan makes it clear it is his appeal to the common man that he wants to make the most of. “Whatever I do I like it to be of mass appeal… It should not be too populist nor too elitist; most of the products I get to endorse including a Tag Heuer or a Hyundai normally fall under that category. The product should be something that belongs to the world I belong to.”
Judging by the products he has endorsed so far it is clear that unlike many of his ilk he is very focused on his brand identity. But at the same time he is clear that filmmaking is his priority. “Everything else is ancillary.”
And any talk about his businessman acumen is shot down with a dismissive “With all due respect to the reputation I have as a businessman I will be the wrong guy to ask for any advice on investment.”
He is equally dismissive of his recent tag as “the second richest actor in the world.”
“I do what I do out of passion. I like sports so I am involved in IPL. I like kids so (I endorse) KidZania; I like films so I am in Bollywood.”
Brand Value
If his performance during the night was anything to go by there can be no doubting that when you sign on King Khan you can be pretty confident he will deliver. To a question as to what does Shah Rukh Khan the brand ambassador bring to a product he endorses the actor was pretty frank. “Of course I will bring in the eyeballs I will bring in the interest. I will bring in the people wanting to come and take a look at it (the property).
“Let me be very honest whenever you take in a brand ambassador you take him for the value he stands for – I stand for a certain modicum of success. I stand for a certain kind of value and a certain kind of cinema.
“I have been working for 25 years and as an Indian actor in the hearts of lots of people from the subcontinent and other places people look up to a certain kind of quality that I stand for. And slowly that gets transferred down to the product. People believe that if I have said yes to this project as an ambassador – I must have sussed all this.”
The world may put him up on a pedestal and he may be the object of a million fans’ affection but Khan is very grounded in his approach to his star value.
“You cannot have a product - or a film for that matter where the hero is better than the film. The film has to be better than the hero. The product has to be better than the ambassador. I have been fortunate in most of the products I have endorsed – I think all of them have been better than me - Inshallah in this too; the value will be brought in by the product.
“Obviously I am a popular actor and hope to remain so; I do bring in the packaging.”
And what is that
“That’s just my good looks!” he jokes. “I am just extremely good looking – and very attractive to women and men alike... I am told!
As for any query about the cheque he takes home in return for having his face plastered on a huge billboard along Sheikh Zayed Road Shah Rukh Khan is at his best: “I have a simple logic – I don’t ask girls their age and I don’t expect them to ask me my salary…”
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