Karan Johar on his bond with Shah Rukh Khan, "He's my God, hero and brother"

Shah Rukh Khan, the megastar, turned 59 on November 2. The actor is close to quite a few people from the film industry. One of them is director and producer Karan Johar. In the wake of SRK’s birthday, Karan spoke about his bond with the actor in an interview with us.What does Shah Rukh Khan mean to your cinema?I can’t imagine making films without him, although I’ve done so. Time and again I'm blown away by Shah Rukh. How can he think of so many things about his character when he has so much on his plate? He did monumental research on his autistic character in My Name Is Khan. I was zapped by how much he knew on the subject. And he brought all the knowledge on the sets. He had written reams of notes on how he wanted to interpret his character. And to him, it was no big deal. He's ready to direct a film any time. He will be outstanding at it. His understanding of human nature and emotions can never be matched by me. There has never been an actor like him.What does he mean to you personally?Personally, for me, he’s my God, my hero and brother. I don’t have to think about how he’ll play a character. He does all the thinking on his own. The character comes from my heart. And then Shah Rukh takes over. He needs no presentation. His presence is enough. He gives a sub-text, graph and everything that a character needs. He understands what I want from his performance. And he gives that extra bit by himself. I feel I fail Shah Rukh. When will I give him that one film where I’ll write a role that would do justice to him?What do you have to say about the infallible Karan Johar-Shah Rukh Khan combination?I feel two hardworking talented people are bound to form a productive team. When these two people share a special familial camaraderie, there’s bound to be very valuable emotions between them, and those emotions are bound to translate on screen. Shah Rukh and I work so well together because we care so deeply for each other in real life. Creativity compounded with brotherly love cannot go wrong.Some of his biggest hits are under your directionIf you ask me, I’m happy piggybacking on his stardom. There can never be an ego between us. I know only too well that he’s successful way beyond what I can ever be. Stars don’t get any bigger than Shah Rukh Khan or Amitabh Bachchan. Once a filmmaker accepts that, the ego never comes in the way. I’m happy with the success God has given me. And I’m happy God has given me Shah Rukh to attain that success. There ‘re certain stars who glow much more brightly than others. That’s why they’re called superstars. I’m happy to have worked with two such stars - Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan.Also Read: Karan Johar opens up about his fear of facing difficult questions from his children: “They will find out things and I will have to be answerable”