SRK woos kids

Wants to give awards to deserving bachcha log; has tied up with D’damas to give out helmets made of out real gold!

When Shah Rukh Khan takes up a project, he pursues it single-mindedly. He puts all he has behind it. I read in a business bible that success hinges on hard work, honesty, endurance and perseverance, and anyone who combines
these attributes will always be successful.

SRK was crowned King Khan a decade ago. Anyone who thinks he is in his position by accident, is undermining him. Big mistake. The actor’s current obsession is his team Knight Riders and he’s dreaming up an idea a minute. Whether it is the uniform for his team, the helmets, the watches (Tag Heuer is the official time keeper!), the website(kolkataknightriders.com) and the music videos… (he gave us a sneak peek on his laptop) he is involved with every little aspect of his team.

Whether his team eventually succeeds or not is the only thing he cannot control. But by the time he is through with his plans, that won’t even matter anymore. Excerpts from a chat with Khan.

You are tying up with big MNCs for your team.
Yes, we have Reebok, who are doing the clothes for the team. We have discussions on the fabrics and the colours etc everyday. We’ve tied up with Tag Heuer for the watches, but the first batch isn’t out yet. I want the team to have the first lot. It’s black and costs about Rs 45,000. They’ll not be bulky, and will be easy to wear. The uniform is black and gold. The helmets are gold all made with the youth market in mind.

You plan to get into merchandising in a big way, right?
Yes, I don’t know why merchandising has never worked here before. I want to change that. I have asked Reebok to launch a line that the youngsters can afford. Normal tees cost about Rs 2500 upwards? That’s not going to be easy on the pocket of the youngsters I’m targetting. I have told them to come up with tees that cost about Rs 250-300. I’m also tying up with Planet M, and they will keep the Knight Riders merchandise all over the country at shops where children aged 12 upwards hang out.

Catching ’em young, eh?
Why not? They are the future. I want to speak the language the youngsters do. I see my children and they speak a different language from us. I want to teach the kids things that are different from what our parents taught us. Our parents told us that we should go easy in life and life’s not all about work. I say it is. Times have changed and the way we live it, has to change too. You should go out there and fight, and win, and achieve things. If you see our videos, that’s the message we are sending out. We’ve even signed on bands that will appeal to the present generation. I hadn’t even heard of them. They were recommended to me, and I liked them.

You plan to shoot more videos?
Yes, the first one is already out but I want to make more. Shoot three videos out of the six songs that we have. People should not get bored looking at the same thing.

Any other plans?
We’ve tied up with D’damas and they’ve made gold helmets, like the team wears. Except these are made of real gold. I think roughly costing about 15 lakh. I want to start some sort of an award where I give these to deserving kids. Someone who has done something brave, or achieved something in life, on their own.

Author: Sarita Tanwar