Shah Rukh Khan says that he doesn’t believe in legacy that is spelt in terms of property or lineage. That’s the reason why he is not attached to any of the previous homes he has lived in, even though he has spent some his best years in those houses
His current home in the city, Mannat, is one Mumbai’s most prime addresses, a haven of luxury that befits the stature of someone like Shah Rukh Khan. But only a small distance away, on Carter Road, is his first home in Mumbai, a flat in Amrit Building — the first property bought by the superstar. It’s a sea facing building, something that his wife Gauri always wanted.
After moving out of that home, Shah Rukh has rarely gone back. He says he is a detached man who doesn’t like to cling on to memories. He shares that while making the purchase of this property, he had asked his eldest aunt if they could sell some family property to raise money for him to buy a house in Mumbai. “I am the only son in the family and I have three aunts who raised me. My eldest aunt said the property is my grandfather’s legacy and therefore should not be sold. I respected that — I understood her attachment to the house where she and her sisters were born. I felt bad I had asked. But because they were so emotional about it, I told them something I believe in — that we are going to be the legacy of our parents, not the houses,” he says.
“I said it with love. And by God’s grace, we have never had to sell any of those houses. They are still there as legacy and I hold that as important. But to me, and I am not showing off as I say this, being brought up in that house is not important. What I did with that birth is important. I’m not saying everybody will become Shah Rukh Khan. You can die unknown but what did you do with that life. If I want, I can go back to my house in Delhi also. But I mean who am I that makes that house so important. If my kids ever ask me to buy it, I will laugh at them. I will be like, are you mad Brick and mortar mean nothing. You live in the home you make. That house is just bricks, so I am not attached to it at all.”
