SRK at Davos: “I am scared of women loving me too much”
Superstar Shah Rukh Khan made his debut at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos on Monday, where he was conferred with the prestigious Crystal Award.
The actor spoke at length about courageous acid attack victims and how they needed solidarity. He was cited in PinkVilla saying, “I’m not saying this out of modesty but I think it’s truly undeserving. When I started working with these women, I went in with the concept of narcissistic compassion that I’m doing a good job. That’s how most people start. But when I was with them, I realised that they don’t need any empathy. They are really brave. They don’t need your charity. All they need is a sense of solidarity. They need you to be with them and they don’t need another definition. We are too eager, as a society, to give women a definition and I say women because, in this case, 85% of the acid attack victims are women.”
He added, “Actually it’s the number. I was in the hospital once. I had to get some physiotherapy done for my shoulder. It’s a hospital I visit regularly and meet the women, kids and families sometimes. I go for rounds late at night so no one gets disturbed.There was this case of these two kids from Kashmir. Their house was bombed and they had lost their families. They had 60-70 percent burns and at the same time, I wanted to buy a new playstation for my son and all the shops were closed. I got a shop opened because I’m a big movie star (he laughs) and I got the playstation before I reached the hospital for my physiotherapy.”
He concluded by saying, “I met these kids there and I don’t think they even realised the extent of suffering they had, they were so young. I left the playstation there and I tried to get the shop opened again to buy another one for my son but I failed. I went home and told my kids about it. My kids were of the same age as the victims then so it came quite naturally to me to help them. You become more compassionate when you are a parent. I started studying and finding out from people that there are officially around 400 acid attack victims in India. It was the number that I felt I could contain and rehabilitate. If things work, I could even employ them.”
Khan also touched upon gender equality, he said, “Equality is not a man-made word. It is given by nature. We are just peddling the word in order to reap benefits, which must stop. Women are not allowed to assert a choice. Methods might change in different parts of the world, but we have always seen women being oppressed because of their biological differences.”
He stood for women to be themselves, “There is nothing more equal than being who you are. Men desexualise women only because they are scared.”
Asked what he was scared about most, he candidly said, “I am scared of women loving me too much”.
