SRK means India for Cameron

When James Cameron sat on the couch with Koel Poorie for her TV show, Shah Rukh and Aamir were just some of the many things he knew about India

We all want to know what’s the first thing you said to your ex-wife (Kathryn Bigelow) after she won the Oscar.
(Laughs) I don’t remember exactly. Actually, she got up and went on stage, and then they go backstage, and I didn’t see her again for the rest of the night.

What about the famous picture of you strangling her?
That was before the ceremony. We decided to just give the press the photo op they were looking for.

Of course, the truth is that you both are friends?
Yes, and we made a promise to each other to just have fun that night.

You like powerful women both on and off camera...
Absolutely.

What marriage are you on? Fifth now? When James Cameron sat on the couch with Koel Poorie for her TV show, Shah Rukh and Aamir were just some of the many things he knew about India
I’m on my last marriage now.

Oh, that’s a lovely way of putting it ... You’ve been married the longest to Suzie?
I think when we were on our 4th or 5th anniversary, and this was 5 years ago, I said we’ve officially been married longer than all my other marriages put together, so she liked that.

What does the word avatar mean to you? It is a Hindu word for us also ...
Of course, and we don’t even pronounce it correctly in the west. I understand the traditional roots of the word, which is that it is the descent or incarnation of a divine being in the flesh. Of course, that was the significance in the film, although the characters are not divine beings. But the idea was that they take flesh in another body. ‘Avatar’ is a term that’s now widely in use, as we all know, in cyber space, relating to second life, alter ego and things like that.

A lot of your references rang true from the Hindu context. Was that intentional or a happy accident? Did you know that Hinduism is a self-interpreting, non dogmatic religion?
I didn’t, I’m not a practising Hindu. I’m certainly familiar with a lot of beliefs of the Hindu religion; I find it quite fascinating. I tried to make a film that would touch people’s spirituality across the broad spectrum.

So it’s definitely open to self-interpretation?
Yes, exactly. And everybody sees the film through the own lens of their life.

This fascinating world that you created, for me it was, sort of seeing things underwater. And you’re a very keen diver as well. Is that where it’s coming from, or is it a lot of drugs?
(laughs) Not drugs... at least I’m not gonna admit to anything... not since my college days.

It was very trippy...
I have spent 3000 hours underwater (diving). Also, I was a teenager in the 60s. So there were lot of black light posters around and so on. But the underwater part of it, I think it’s my love of nature in general. By the way, a major part of it is having great artistes from all over the world, all feeding into one big pool of imagination... that’s where these images come from.

Would Pandora be quite close to your idea of an ideal world?
No, I think Pandora is kind of a fictionalised fantasy version of what our world was like, before we started to pave it and build malls, and shopping centres. So it’s really an evocation of the world we used to have.

How much do you know of Bollywood?
Very little, because our films tend not to penetrate here that much, and Bollywood films tend not to penetrate in the American market that much. It’s almost like two different worlds to a large extent, but that’s changing.

From our perspective, you make something which we term as ‘masala films’ which are blockbusters, all of Bollywood is about masala films...
You like the epics.

We are all about big scale, emotions and manipulation...
So you get it, you guys get what I like to do...

I’m going to say a word to you, tell me what comes to mind. India...
For me, it’s fantasy.

Shah Rukh Khan.
Giant movie star.

You know him?
Absolutely.
How does it make you feel that this giant movie star, Shah Rukh Khan, has called us up to say, please get a T2 poster signed by you?
I’m more than happy to sign it, if he’ll sign a poster for me!

Oh! What poster? You’d have to see one of his films...
My Name Is Khan. How about that?

Aamir Khan?
He is the other big movie star. All the big movie stars here are named Khan – is this a designation or a name?
People change their names just to come in that category!