Though the plot of Good versus Evil is older than the Big Bang, Khan describes the movie as a comic film for kids who can bring their parents along. "It does not claim to be intelligent or try to impress you. It taps the child in you," he adds. Also, the film has an unique character portrayal. "The women are the toughies while the hero is the epitome of naivety, wimpiness and nerdiness," says Khan. And yet, the hero leaves you with the impression: Hell, I should have met him before! But that feeling does not come because you think the wimp-hero is vulnerable and needs to be mothered. Rather, he is highly intelligent and completely in control of the situation. "The message of the film is that no one is as dumb as you think they are. Just because they are nice, don'tmisconstrue that they are idiots."

And though the hero is pitted against the "meanest villain ever", he never fights -- not because he is a coward, but because he thinks "eight gms of brain can beat the shit out of the toughest guy". Of course, helping our hero is the divine patronage and protection that comes free with being a "god's child" -- the type who unerringly bends to tie his shoelace the very moment a bullet zoom towards his head, or who slips on a banana peel just as a knife races towards his heart.

For Khan, bringing out these contrasts was the greatest challenge of the role. "To create a nerd who cannot even sit straight and yet has the most beautiful girl fall in love with him." But he is used to such challenges. "I have never done stereotype-stereotype even with normal stereotype-herotype roles. They have always been a little different."

The difference lies in the intensity of his performance. Khan claims that though he neither has the looks, the voice nor even the talents, what makes himHero No 1 is that he is an uninhibited actor. "I do not hide myself. There is a nudity of emotions in my acting," he says. For example, in Duplicate, he is so madly in love with Juhi Chawla, he goes around trailing her. In a scene, a tree came in the way, but rather than walking around it -- as was the original plan -- Khan ended up climbing it! "I did what I felt at that moment. I would love to climb trees for the girl I love," he says. Something that is unfortunately not possible in real life -- "The girl would think I am a fool. She would be ashamed or worried about people watching us."

But when you ask Shah Rukh Khan about Shah Rukh Khan, he draws a blank. "I am a different person for different people. My perception of myself is nil as I never get to see myself." Khan believes there is a quantum-mechanical paradox in self-analysis. "If I say I am intelligent I disprove the statement merely by saying it. If I say I'm hardworking, then I refute the fact that if I were really hardworking, I won't eventhink about it..." In fact, Khan finds the adage Know Thyself to be absurd -- he is what he is, period. "I don't have any questions for myself. Never reflected on why I am this way, what else could I have been. Instead of sitting and pondering in solo wondering what I am, I portray my emotions on screen," he explains.

In Duplicate, his 26th film, Khan does that two times over! Like rain dances and song-sequences, he feels Indians have a soft corner for double roles. Films are about what people want, and don't have. So plots that contradict the existing scenario always do well. "When there is less violence in society, violent films do well. When there is more violence, romantic films do well. When level of achievement is good, a loser film does well..." Similarly, a double role is a comedy of errors nonextant in real life. "It is a take off point and gives a dramatic, comic premise to start off with a film," he adds. And it does not really matter that logic and credulity takes a beating at the handsof the lookalikes. "The biggest loophole is the fact that two guys look alike! That is as farfetched, silly or as near to truth as Martians landing in the middle of us, or the concept of heaven or hell, or God....but we believe in God!"

Khan believes in the God of FX -- special effects. So when Aamir Khan drops by to chat with him, their conversation is all about fire, glass, flying cars, mobike chases, broken shoulders... ending with the conclusion that special effects is a manna from heaven. Movies are about dreams and anything that enhances the dreamlike effect will always remain welcome. "In a moonlit serenade, the couple can look up and see a shooting star pass by," says Khan, adding that the scene in Koyla where he sets himself afire would have come across nicer and cleaner with FX.

But Khan agrees that Hollywood remains ahead of Bollywood in FX. "We don't even dream like the makers of Hollywood. But we are opening up to possibilities," he says. Also, he finds the term "Bollywood" derogatory."We are not in any which way mimicry artists of Hollywood. We are the Mumbai film industry," he asserts.

And other than films, Khan does two ads every year. His job is to enhance the packaging of the product, not to dazzle the buyer. "I am a retail shop via which I help you sell. If you are going to buy something because I endorse it, it is not my concern," he says. Just because the bottle is good you don't buy the perfume. "You have to smell it."

But Khan disagrees that the famed actor of today is the also-been actor of tomorrow. "Actors never die, stars die. Actors last as long as they want to." He adds that instead of ageing, he has actually grown younger, "When I was 24, I played the role of 28 year old. Now I am 32, I am playing 28!"