Don’t panic, he still doesn’t use the buttons.  And one of them is white, so a little see-through.  It’s all good.

I watched the videos this morning before leaving for work, and just as I was getting on the train, two more posted!  So now there is a second half.  Which gives me an opportunity to explain that this interview is in Lisbon, which is in Portugal!  Not Italy, as I originally thought.  But really, who can keep all those European countries straight?

It also gives me an opportunity to hear slightly deeper discussions from Shahrukh.  And slightly more relaxed.  I think the “strolling through the city” opening, even though it looked cool, was also kind of distracting and formal, they couldn’t really focus on the conversation, because they had to be constantly moving.

The first half gets into Shahrukh’s need to challenge himself, that he doesn’t want to have to say “sorry” or “thank you” at the end of his career, that he wants to know he earned whatever he has.  And that he doesn’t want to have to show AbRam DDLJ and tell him “this is the only reason I am a star.”  I hadn’t thought about it that way before, DDLJ is brilliant, and so is his performance, but it must be nerve-wracking to constantly try to top something you did 20 years ago.

The second half is definitely the easiest conversation.  Feels much more like two old friends sort of joking/flirting at a dinner party, then it does an interview.  Speaking of, Anupama is totally in love with him, right?  Not like I think she will leave Vidhu for him (have you seen 1942: a Love Story?  How could you leave a man who directed that?) or anything, but there is definitely a crush going on.

Speaking of crushes, can we discuss Shahrukh’s costuming here?  Man oh Man, he looks GOOD!!!!  The loose white shirt, then the tight shirt with biceps showing, the trimmed beard, it’s all just very very nice.

And I think it might be why the sound is so messed up?  Have you noticed that?  Or am I losing my hearing?  But it seems like Anupama comes through fairly clearly, and Shahrukh is much softer, with some background noise.  But I noticed, in part 4 because I wasn’t exactly looking at the microphones before then, that Anupama’s microphone is much closer to her mouth, because her neckline is much higher than Shahrukh’s.  Thanks to Shahrukh’s lovely display of cleavage, his microphone is hanging out all the way over to the side.

Now the question is, is it better to see his cleavage or hear his thoughts?  Normally I might be a little torn, but since in this case we are just getting some light stories about his struggles with social media, I think an appealing glimpse of the clavicle is more than worth missing a word here and there.

Oh!  And my actual research thing!  I got curious about who is sponsoring this series.  It’s Microsoft, to promote their “Surface” tablet thing, thus “Beneath the Surface”.  Here’s what the head of microsoft India had to say about it in The Economic Times:

Commenting on the campaign, Vineet Durani, director, Windows Business Group, Microsoft India said, “We are excited to present this new campaign ‘Beneath the Surface’, that celebrates the lives of these artists who live the ‘do more’ philosophy. The show goes beyond their glamorous lifestyles to show you the long working hours and madness that has made them the global icons they are today.”

Huh.  Is this what advertising is really like now?  You sponsor a youtube channel of interviews, with some really really general connection to your product?  Or is it just that a bunch of nerdy Microsoft India guys wanted an excuse to hang out with movie stars?