Religion is a personal thing, SRK

The Badshah of B-town Shah Rukh Khan yesterday graced the India Today Conclave held in Taj Palace Hotel, Delhi. The event was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The renowned actor spoke on the topic - 'Movies, Magic, Life: Making Movies Work in a Brand New World'.

With the presence of King Khan the serious event was literally turned into a light-hearted session, where SRK came up with his usual tongue-in-cheek speech. Remarked the star, "My wife always tells me, 'Please don't try to be funny at serious events, please don't speak too much'. And I am told this is a very serious event."

In the course of the event, Shah Rukh was asked about his famous six-pack physique and the actor sportily pulled up his shirt to show the audience his abs. "I don't know whether it is a six pack, but it is definitely a four," said SRK, which was followed by applause and cat calls.

The star went on cover issues related to politics, religion and of course cinema. Shah Rukh poked fun at the politicisation of the word 'Mumbai' and on speaking about communalism and Indian cinema going global he said, "Indian cinema is going from Mumbai to Melrose. Though I would have preferred saying Bombay to Beverly Hills, that kind of alliteration is not allowed to Muslim actors,"

He stated that religion and politics should never be mixed and he finds communalism "low down and deplorable". "I truly believe that politicians should not use religion as an agenda. It is just not acceptable. The issues like education, development and women's upliftment, which are sidelined are the basic political issues which need to be looked upon," quoted SRK.

He went on to add further, "I am a Muslim myself and I am married to a Hindu lady and my children know about all religions and its my conscious decision to make them aware of it. Religion is a personal thing and nobody in this world has the right to come between you and your God."

Stressing about the importance of our Indian films, the actor said that "We need to make our own Harry Potter films. Hollywood has trained the world to watch films that are made on a set format. To sustain ourselves in the market, we need to master the skills in which we are lagging behind."

He finally summed up his session, by re-phrasing his famous dialogue from ‘Om Shanti Om’- “Duniya ko hamari badi badi filmein abhi dekhna baaki hai mere dost.”