Shah Rukh Khan's Business Plans

Actor-producer-entrepreneur Shah Rukh Khan believes in dreaming big and utilising money to create value. That is why perhaps he is co-producing and acting in India’s costliest film till date Zero. Khan talks to Ashish Sinha of BW Businessworld about film production, brand endorsement, and his dreams. Excerpts:

What are your plans for Red Chillies especially on the VFX side?

I hope I am able to financially sustain Red Chillies for the next five-six years and then we will have a company which will perhaps influence more filmmakers to think and create maybe an entire film around special effects and VFX. And that is my dream. Doing VFX is a costly proposition. Right now there are very few people who believe in spending the kind of money I would spend on visual effects and VFX. At least one film of mine in a year always involves special effects and VFX, which keeps Red Chillies going. Earlier, we did a lot of special effects work in films like Raees, Krishh, Ra.One and a few others. VFX requires money. It is not something that’s done for the sake of it. It is not ‘aiyashi’ (extravagance) . If you try to do this in America it will cost you 10 times more than what it takes in India. Zero has kept Red Chillies busy for two years. For Krishh we were involved for almost a year. I am working on Rakesh Sharma’s biopic called Salute which will have some VFX/special effects.

Can you recall the days when the Hyundai commercial first came to you in 1998? What was the brief then?