Whether one agrees or not, Kolkata Knight Riders continue to be the most popular team in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Marketing or gossiping or dancing or even crying, they seem to be doing it all. Shah Rukh Khan, the team owner, believes that the time has also come to start winning. He feels if they can do that, KKR will be right up there. In an exclusive interview SRK spoke about the highs and lows faced in the first two years of IPL, what IPL 3 holds for him.

What does this IPL mean to you?
I wish we had seen a little more success (in 2008 and 2009) because then it would have been like a fulfillment of some of my dreams. I suppose this season is going to define that however unrealistic and idealistic you be, the fact is that you’ve got to win. We have to prove that this team is more than just Brand Shah Rukh or just Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo or Black and Gold or Cool or whatever. So, this season means defining where we go. Hopefully when we start, we start thinking about the next step only at the semifinal stage and then hopefully the final. All this means a lot to me and I don’t like to be at the receiving end. Nobody likes to be. I think I have enough patience, I have enough grace to accept defeat. I have been a professional through my life. But I think just accepting defeat does not make you a good team. You’ve got to go out, play well and win. Sometimes, a bit of fortune needs to be on our side. Mashalllah, I hope that happens. We’ve concentrated mostly on the game, mostly the Indian youngsters. This year our international players are all there.

Personally, your career is a huge success. So, when you see your team not achieving much success, how much does it frustrate you? Are there times when you feel you can’t do much but just watch from outside the boundary?
It is a misnomer that I haven’t seen failure. I have seen failure and that is why I am successful. God has been kind and my success has been this huge because of all of you. It has been talked about so much that sometimes it feels strange the way it buries all my failures. Whether it was as a producer, or whether my films, I’ve been written off many times. I’ve been talked about like I am a fluke. I’ve just gotten lucky, etc. Yes there are days when I am very sad, feeling very low. I keep telling myself ‘look I am the (team) owner and people keep saying dekho Shah Rukh Khan haar gaya, Shah Rukh haar gaya’. But that’s okay, perhaps they wouldn’t say it so much if I wasn’t successful. Other teams have also lost but nobody picks on them. It’s only me. But still business comes to my company and sponsors are happy. That’s because people just remember our success, not the failures.

Of the 8 IPL teams there are a few big corporates. Tomorrow whether they continue to keep their teams or sell, it’ll just be plain business. However, in your case it’ll be about Shah Rukh the brand quitting. Is that something you’ve thought about?
I run this team like a sportsperson. I’m not someone who is looking at it from the outside. ‘Arrey dekho haar gaye, Shah Rukh haar gaya.’ There’s no pressure of that kind. Of course to run the business, there’s always going to be pressure if we keep losing. Because I don’t have the money, I’ll be very honest. I have to really work hard with my partners to get this kind of money on board. I spend about 30-40 days a year with this whereas I could earn a lot of money in this time doing other things. But I am with them just so that my team has enough money so that it can be run happily. If I lose, I go back, I go quiet but I come back. I can’t explain it.

How do you look back at the first two editions of IPL?
I don’t mind talking about it but I don’t look back. What has been done has to be left behind. You can’t live off your success or keep dwelling on your failures. It has to be the moment. We played badly, so we lost. Whether it was coaching, whether it was the decisions. People can say things, things like, mentally they were down, they were weak. My logic is that we need to play well. I know that, the team knows it. So what we need to do now is to go out there and win. Analyzing it any more than that is complicating it. I keep asking Dada (Sourav Ganguly) what can be done. We have a weak middle order?
Okay, work on it. We need a fast bowler? Okay, get one. We need to practice more? Okay, do that. We need to be more friendly? Okay, do that. But having done all that, the bottomline is you’ve got to go out there and play well, it’s as simple as that.

It is said KKR happens to be the only team in IPL that is making money. How would you like to react to that?
We are one of the cheaper teams. Only Rajasthan Royals is cheaper than us. South Africa, I don’t know the figures but our break-in at the stadium (Eden Gardens) is maximum. So, the seven home games match up to almost the 20 other centres. That’s the capacity we have though unfortunately, because there’s work going on at Eden, it won’t be the same this year.
The other thing is that I am a brand and I understand that. I endorse a lot of things and why I manage to do that is because a lot of people believe in what I do and they like to follow my style. If they do that, then the general thinking is why will they not follow my team?I don’t want to take anything from other teams. But I think we are the most emotionally worked up team. We have emotions attached. People see that, people invest in that. We don’t see a corporation here. We don’t see just professionalism which could be a good or bad thing, I don’t know. You see us sad when we’re losing. You see us dancing when we win. W can’t afford to run this thing without our sponsors like Nokia and XXX who give us a lot of money. They give us almost twice or thrice of what other teams get. I go out of my way to create value for KKR. Inshallah I hope my team also goes out of its way to achieve success. So, I think, all that put together gets us a little more than what we’re spending. Though, honestly, I don’t even mind losing a bit of money if I have to win.

When IPL 4 happens, there’ll be three matches per day, 94 matches in all. How do u see that? Do
you see an overdoze of Twenty20?
We had this discussion in Bangkok and I think I was one of the only two who wasn’t convinced about this. I felt that maybe it’s not right but they tried to explain to me. The number of matches increase, the number of teams increase, the payback increases. And it comes back to the franchise. There is some economics to it. I am not good at number crunching but this is what I’ve been explained. I don’t know what the deal is but by ten years, I think there’ll be 12 teams in place, like the Premiership League. I’m not sure but there’ll be a lot more matches. I guess by then you’ll have to make sure you’re Man U or Chelsea or Arsenal or Liverpool (laughs). But there’s a lot more they’ll have to look at. They have to look at the world calendar. Lot of wheels within wheels. They (who run IPL) are very smart people. I am sure they have thought it through, Sony must have thought it through too.

You somehow seem to land in controversies most of the times you say something. Last year the whole issue surrounding you and Sunil Gavaskar was blown out of proportion.
Every field has its laws and rules and maybe I don’t know much in sport. But I find that happening in my films too, which is my business. Many a times, I feel a lot of it is interesting copy. We cannot deny that the Indian film industry, at this point of time, is the cheapest and fastest way to guarantee publicity. It could be a great thing. But the downside is many a times it is utilised in a way it isn’t meant to be. I am a little idealistic and a little straight-forward in some ways. Otherwise, I am a smart guy and I have my own ways of working. It is part of occupational hazard. When I say something and I feel I am right, I stand by it and if there’s some miscommunication, I also make an effort to clear things. When the whole controversy happened, I immediately called up Gavaskar saab and clarified it. But within 24 hours it was blown into something else and things got out of hand. When it is accepted that I sell a car and people buy it, I also have to accept that what I say people use it to sell it too. I still haven’t started suing and things like that (laughs).

What about the fakeiplplayer? The blog certainly did a lot of harm to KKR last year
I have so many fakes I don’t even read about them. I have heard about it a few times. I also saw some of it being reported on TV once. I think to give credibility to this nonsense is wrong. I know I am a successful guy and there are people who want to feed and live off my name. I’m told that the guy, he or she whoever it is, is coming out with a book. If that’s the case then all the best to that person, God bless. We are film people and we keep hearing these obnoxious things all the time.

There is talk that because Shah Rukh is a marketing genius, this could be his work
I am given more credit than what I actually do. Everything is exaggerated in my life. If I have done well, I am praised much more than I should be. I believe in certain things, good business, good marketing. But one thing I never used is negative aspects. I have never called up anyone for favours to do anything negative. If I wasn’t in the field that I am in, I’d be a little disppointed about things that are written about me. I am very protective about my family, the things I stand by. But I accept that most of the things that surround me are going to be like that. I don’t need to take recourse to anything negative. Yes, I have a great sense of humour but something like that is unacceptable to me. My team has lost nine matches in a row and some idiot is calling us names. And people are picking it up and making it a joke. Why would I like myself to be laughed at. Without sounding pompous, I am seriously one of the biggest stars this country has ever seen. I am educated and I look to set an example for youngsters to follow. So why would I try to demean my own self by doing something like this? My marketing is clearcut, I spend money for it, I meet people.