This was in 1996 September when I moved to Mumbai after watching the SRK classic ‘Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman’. I had joined the New Indian Express (NIE) newspaper as Assistant Business Manager. The City of Dreams welcomed me with open arms and I was exuberant and bubbling with enthusiasm.

Apart from handling supplements for NIE, I was also given charge of a magazine called Gentleman and had to take care of servicing various clients and media agencies in Mumbai.

Around November-December the year I arrived in Mumbai, I wrote to the office of Mr. Amitabh Bachchan for a meeting without any expectations. I was surprised when I got a letter (through courier) from his office, ABCL, signed by Big B himself. I was called to the Mehboob Studios in Bandra on a Saturday. I pulled in my friend Ejaz Ahmed since he is a die-hard fan of Big B.

I don’t remember exactly, but I guess Big B was shooting for ‘Mrityudaata’. Before arriving at Mehboob Studio, I did a lot of role plays as I did not  want to look fatuous in front of Big B. I was called in at 2 pm. The Angry Young Man aka Big B was seated on a plastic chair and was extremely polite while answering a few questions.

The conversation  I had with him was recorded recorded on a small cassette player that I lost during many transfers to various places for work — alas!. But I still remember that the superstar was courteous and made me feel comfortable; he even enquired if I liked the place as it was everyone’s dream to come and work here and make it big. Smilingly, he said  that this place will make me ‘happy’ one day.

We left happy! And it later struck me that we had not even clicked a picture with him. Around January first week in 1997, I was surprised to get a nice New Year greetings card signed by the superstar, followed by a call.

The point is: at his level there was no reason to entertain a tyro like me. But, I guess, big stars and people who have arrived in life don’t carry any attitude — and Big B is a shining example of it.

SRK in Goregaon

After many follow ups with Shah Rukh Khan’s office — I used to be in regular touch with Anwar those days — I got a call to meet SRK in Goregaon Studio where he was shooting for a ‘Dil to Pagal Hai’s song sequence (‘Ghoda jaisi chaal…’).

He was such a cool person. I was invited into his room (not a vanity van) where he instantly asked: “Chai Peeyaga Kya?” I said yes and was offered a glass of ‘cutting’ chai. He then asked me to enjoy the tea (in Hindi) and wait, adding that he’d be back in a jiffy after completing the shot.  He extolled about the producer as he had given him a couple of hits. Though I had been called in the evening, the shooting went on till nearly midnight.

SRK returned around 11.45 pm and apologized for keeping me waiting — and then we started to speak.

Later, I quit the New Indian Express and joined the Navabharat Group and continued my acquaintance with SRK. There was a rumour that he had got injured during the shoot of ‘Yes Boss’.

I instantly called his mobile toenquire about his health. Though that call went unanswered, I received a call back very soon on the landline of the Navabharat office in Fort area of Mumbai. When a female colleague picked up the landline to answer, she heard somebody say that SRK was on the line and would like to speak to Shankar.

Thinking it was a prank, my lady colleague shot back that if the caller was SRK, then she was Juhi Chawla, a top shot heroine of Bollywood those days — and then insolently banged the phone down.

Unfazed, SRK called back again, spoke to the team and then we chatted for about 5-6 minutes. It took a while for my female colleague to realize that she had actually banged the phone down on SRK. We all had a hearty laugh.

Both Big B and SRK are such cavernous figures, at the apogee of their careers even today, but still are extremely humble, patient, genial, while carrying a level of equanimity that’s so endearing.

That’s why, probably, both  are still remain so much in demand. Wishing Big B and SRK a belated happy birthday and many more to come.

(Shankar B is a media professional with over three decades of experience. He’s currently the CEO of Fourth Dimension Media Solutions, one of India’s leading media outsourcing companies. Views expressed are personal.)