I'm an actor, not a vocal leader: SRK on Meryl Streep
Shah Rukh Khan, while reacting to actress Meryl Streep's recent speech, said that he is an actor and not a vocal leader. "She found a platform and... people who appreciated what she said. In India, everybody has so many opinions that they want to pick on something others say," said SRK. He added he doesn't want to comment on issues.
When multiple Oscar-winning actor and living legend Meryl Streep took the stage at the 74th Golden Globe Awards ceremony on January 8, little did she know that her speech against US President-elect Donald Trump would make pundits back in India criticise Indian actors and celebrities for not being politically vocal and honest.In her much-celebrated (and criticised) speech, Meryl Streep, on winning the Cecil B. DeMille Award, spoke against Donald Trump and rebuked him for his ways, in particular, his mockery of New York Times' disabled reporter Serge Kovaleski at a Republican rally."It kind of broke my heart when I saw it," Streep said, "and I still can't get it out my head because it wasn't in a movie, it was in real life. That instinct to humiliate when it's modeled by someone in a public platform, it filters down into everyone's life because it gives permission for others to do the same."ALSO READ: Complete Golden Globes speech of Meryl Streep attacking Donald TrumpALSO READ: Donald Trump responds to Meryl Streep's speechOPINION: Dear Zindagi is Shah Rukh's natural evolution, not a change of trackNow, in a recent interview published in Hindustan Times, when Shah Rukh Khan was asked why stars wouldn't talk about "real issues" in India, Shah Rukh said that he would go ahead and say something only if the journalist he speaks to would put across his views exactly as they are, without adding or deleting anything."Get me a top TV journalist who puts my views across as they are, without trying to add their own point of view. Then I would say something. I have said it before, and I rue the day I said it (shared my opinions.) It is about how much views are put across, which is very sad. And then the same people ask, 'Why doesn't Shah Rukh Khan say anything?' No, I won't say anything. You say it, but you can't tell me what to say," Shah Rukh was quoted as saying.To put things in context, back in 2015, when Shah Rukh appealed to Indians to preserve and uphold secularism, a massive hate campaign was launched all across India to paint Shah Rukh as an intolerant anti-national and harm the box-office collections of his film Dilwale, which had released just after the controversy."Religious intolerance and not being secular is the worst kind of crime that you can do as a patriot," is what Shah Rukh had said which got him into trouble.Now, Shah Rukh is in no mood to invite trouble when trouble is all the more out there, looking for easy targets like him. Regarding Meryl Streep's speech, Shah Rukh said, "You like Meryl Streep so much, run her tape. God bless you; you have Meryl Streep saying it, so why do you want someone else to say the same thing? Why do you want to be a copycat like you always have been? It's stupid."ALSO WATCH: No one understands me, says Shah Rukh KhanWhen asked about his opinions on whether Streep did the right thing, SRK said, "I think Meryl Streep said a wonderful thing. We all have to be like that, and I am not talking about just artistes. Also, whenever something happens somewhere, they are like, 'Why isn't Shah Rukh Khan commenting on it?' But I don't want to. I am an actor, main koi vocal leader thodi na hoon (I am not a vocal leader, right?). So, what the lady said is marvellous. She found a platform and she found people who appreciated what she said. In India, everybody has so many opinions that they want to pick on something others say."