Shah Rukh Khan has opened up about where his money comes from, how he spends it and how he invests it — admitting that he likes “big” things but doesn’t like to spend money on himself.
“We have a big house, big office and big films... my money gets spent on all this. The only time I spend money is on filmmaking. I don’t go out to restaurants, I eat at home and that too [the] same food. I don’t buy new clothes. And whatever I have an excitement for, I am already endorsing it,” he said.
“I am a fakir [ascetic] that way, I don’t celebrate success. If you meet me for seven days I would be in the same pants. I love giving things to people. I don’t buy anything for myself,” Khan said.
“I don’t have any personal desires. I love fulfilling the desires of my children. I don’t listen to music so I don’t buy speakers. I have lot of shoes, but all that comes from shootings because I wear sneakers,” he added.
After achieving immense success, Khan now has a huge empire — a film production company, VFX studio, IPL team, investments in companies and properties abroad (he has a villa on the Palm Dubai).
“I feel I should do something new as I have got the opportunity to do it. A lower middle class boy who comes from Delhi has not even a penny to his name, parents are not there... and [then] you get these opportunities,” Khan said.
“But if I don’t do all this [investments in IPL team, VFX studio], then I would be the biggest star at leisure, doing my acting, endorsements and take some holidays,” he said.
The Fan star says he is content with taking risks and trying out different things.
“I may fail but at least I gave it a shot. We all will fail, we all will have an end to our career one day, so let’s try something new,” the 50-year-old actor said.
Khan admits he hardly sits with his business team due to time constraints.
“I hardly spend an hour or 15 minutes with my team, which is wrong. [Filmmaker] Aditya Chopra keeps telling me that I should sit down on the businesses,” he said.
“As an actor, I spend ten hours on a set, I hardly get time. I believe and have faith in my team, I feel they are fantastic managers, better than me. They come to me and ask if a thing is right or wrong,” he said.
Khan says he used to take a keen interest in developing his empire, including the IPL team and the companies in which he has invested.
“Ten years back I was hands-on, I used to even write ads for Kolkata Knight Riders [his IPL team], I used to edit ads. Three years ago I entered into lot of things and I closed down lots of stuff also,” he said.
“Now I only do film production, VFX, KKR, Kidzania [he owns 26 per cent of the Mumbai outlet of the children’s activity centre] and my acting career. I am not into day-to-day running of all these things,” the Dilwale star said.
And if he needs a little capital? He’ll dance at a wedding before taking a loan.
“I go and do certain things that people don’t do, like, dance at functions, do more appearances and few more endorsements and put back the money in the company. My belief is I should be able to run my business. I put my money where my mouth is. So far so good,” he said.
Khan said whatever he earns, he invests it back into his businesses.
“My personal money is what I get from acting and from here and there [endorsements]. I don’t need money that ways. We are spending not much more than what we are earning and if we do, I have to work out and we try to cut down stuff,” he said.
On the work front, Khan will be seen next in Raees, releasing in January 2017. He is also doing Gauri Shinde’s film with Alia Bhatt, and has a film each with Anand L Rai and Imtiaz Ali.
