"Things which had not happened historically before are happening
and one of the changes that can come along is peace and humanity
in the world too," he said. "There was a choice: should
we have the president, have a look-alike, there was a choice,
should we use it metaphorically?"
"We chose the latter and didn't go for someone who looked
like Mr.Barack Obama. We don't even mention it as Mr.Barack
Obama in the film, actually," Shah Rukh said.
But when asked what he thought of Obama, the Bollywood star
played a little coy. "I really have not that much knowledge
about the politics of the world, to be really honest. (laughs)
I'm a little untouched by it.
"But on the face of it, when I came to America last year
for '...Khan', I think that's the time he was elected ... and
one kind of was present during the time when everyone was talking
wonderfully [about] how new things will happen..."
"...country's politics I'm not too sure of," Shah
Rukh said. "He looks like a gentleman, amazingly presentable,
speaks very well, so I can just talk about him as a viewer,
not as a knowledgeable person about the intricacies of his policies
and politics."
"I don't think the US has a perception in majority which
is negative," he said when asked how he thought the US'
perceptions of Islam would be affected by the fact that Obama's
father himself was a Muslim.
"But when somebody is thwarted, the first reaction always
is a little more, I won't say aggressive, but a little more
volatile against X, Y, Z person or a group of people who've
thwarted them," Shah Rukh said.
"May be what would really change the perception of the
world about each other is having knowledge about each other.
"So may be the people here and the people in the Muslim
world need to understand each other's religion and faith and
the bottomline would be that each faith has a similar kind of
discipline and goodness attached to it which normally says everybody
should live life in a good way...and that's basically also the
message of '...Khan'."
Shah Rukh was fulsome in his praise of Christopher B. Duncan,
who plays Obama in the film. "As an actor I think he's
tremendous...very powerful actor," he said of the artiste
known for his performance as Obama on the "The Tonight
Show" with Jay Leno.
"I was very impressed, I shot with him one day. Without
wanting to sound patronising, Kajol and me thought he was an
amazingly powerful actor."