Shadowing Practice: ENGLISH SPEECH | SHAH RUKH KHAN: Perseverance & Success (English Subtitles) - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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It's not often that I'm downright intimidated by the person I'm about to interview.
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Kristalina Gergeva, easy for lunch.
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But SRK is a legend, aren't you?
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You're being very sweet, Richard.
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Like I told you, I'm not a legend.
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I'm Bond.
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James Bond.
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I told you that at the backstage.
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Say that again.
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Go on.
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What's your name?
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Bond.
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James Bond.
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Would you like to play Bond?
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I'd really wanted to, but I think I'm too short.
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What about Bond baddie?
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Baddie, yes, of course.
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I'm brown enough.
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If we look at your career, how many years?
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Now I think actively including television, 33 years now.
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I've been actively working as an actor-actor.
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But to have reached the level of stardom that you have reached and for the length of time is quite an achievement.
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It's more than that, it's a huge achievement.
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But it speaks to more than just obviously the raw talent, but it also speaks to perseverance, the ability to keep going, which is something that's so crucial.
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Yeah, I think it's, you know, perseverance is, I think it happens to some people.
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You don't have any option but to persevere.
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So maybe when I was young, I lost my parents very early and then you realize that, okay, there's no rewinding this, there's no coming back from death and you have to continue, make the most of what you have.
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So I was kind of a youngish orphan and I had to work my way through it.
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Or it could be just part of nature, the nature of the beast that you are just with dogged determination.
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You keep on working.
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Where does that come from?
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I don't know.
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I've always tried to analyze it, that why do I do what I do?
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Why do I wake up in the morning and just start doing it all over again, even when it's...
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I think it taught me, the work that I do making films, the result happens very suddenly.
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You think you made the best of films, you think it's the nicest of stories to tell, you think the world is going to love it,
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and you wake up on a Friday morning and realize it's the biggest flop of your career. Which happened.
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Which happens, yeah, which happens more often than not.
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Or sometimes you don't like a film and that becomes the biggest hit of your career, and you say, like, how did this happen?
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But what I realized, and I want to say this to everyone actually, and I say this to everyone who's working with me or people who know me,
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that on Thursday evening, because our films release on Fridays mostly, or Thursday evenings here in Dubai.
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So Thursday evening at home in Mumbai, I rinse myself with a two hour bath and rinse myself of the work that I've done.
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Because what happens- Oh hang on, let's talk about that bath.
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It's a ritual, yeah.
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Is it a ritual?
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I mean, do you put special oils and scents?
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Do you have bath salts?
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Do you prepare with candles?
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I'm not telling you my secret.
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You come and take a bath with me.
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Easy, I show, I'm an actor, I'll show you how to do it.
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Should I take him up on his offer?
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Carry on, sir.
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No, but honestly, I do, because you know, I realize when you do a big hit film, it's done well and you're very happy and everybody's jumping around, Friday happens, Saturday happens, Sunday happens,
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and you realize this is a big blockbuster, but Monday I have to get back to work to make a better film.
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You made a flop film, Friday you're sad, Saturday you're crying, Sunday you're moping and you're not waking up from bed, Monday you have to get back to work and start making a better film.
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So Mondays are for trying to make better films always.
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So you have to persevere.
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Okay, but let me be crude.
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You don't need the money.
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No, I need the money.
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Oh, you do?
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The bath oils are very expensive.
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Fine.
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What's...
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If you had to define the quintessential SRK film, what would it be?
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I've said this before, I was telling you behind.
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I don't know when it happened, Richard, to be honest.
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I didn't realize it.
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I never wanted to be someone who's, like I say, peddling love or seller of dreams.
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I wanted to be an action guy with eight packs and beat up people, be in a white vest, girl on my side with a Glock in my hand,
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and speak in baritone, and things like that.
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But I never got the opportunity.
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I don't know.
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When I started off, suddenly everybody started to think of me as someone who's, you know, promising hope, giving hope and spreading love.
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Like I spread my arms again and again.
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So I think my regular film would be a film that gives you hope, gives you goodness, gives you happiness.
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And at the end of it all, lots of good songs.
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Yes, but you've also, there's a great YouTube video, four minutes of your best entrances.
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Yeah.
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And there's a lot of action in them.
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Yeah.
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Only entries, no exits.
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I just keep entering again and again.
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My kids get very, you know, when I, I have three kids, and whenever that video plays, and I have to tell you a secret, we've compiled it from the office.
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I think it looks just very cool.
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It's not made by others.
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We've made it.
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So whenever a show like this happens, and if you allow me to show a video here, we'll show you me just entering some places, and very dramatically and romantically.
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But my kids make a lot of fun of it.
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You know, whenever I get a little serious with them, they'll just look at me and say, oh my god, he's doing those entries from his video.
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SRK.
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So it does become a...
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Do you want to give us a...
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Oh yeah, I can do that, I can do that.
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With your permission, sir, we'll...
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If it's okay, yeah.
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Yeah, go on.
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Is there something you would not do? On screen? On screen?
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I don't know.
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I wouldn't be...
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I'd like to give hope in my films.
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The stories that I tell, I hope they end with hope.
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I know I've done some really sad films also.
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I've done films which are tragedies.
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But somewhere down the line, I just hope that I can give hope in films.
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So I don't like to give hopeless cinema or hopeless stories
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because I think in life and in businesses and in jobs and world, there's enough sadness.
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So you're extremely well known here, obviously because of the Indian population that is here and elsewhere.
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But you like it here.
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You have a home.
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You are not a here-today-gone-tomorrow person for Dubai.
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No, no, no, I spend a lot of time here.
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I have a beautiful house which has been given to me by Nakhil
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and it's one of the nicest places in the world because nobody troubles me.
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And His Excellency, the Prime Minister, also just told me that he stays next to it.
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So the next New Year party is with him.
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He's a good neighbour.
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But it's really nice.
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I really, really enjoy being in Dubai.
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I really love being here.
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And you find the juxtaposition with going back to Mumbai?
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No, this is very easy.
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It's just two and a half hours away.
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So I keep dropping in, we come with the kids, and there's so much to do here.
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I'm sounding like the tourist ambassador of Dubai suddenly, right?
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Everybody asks about crossover, and I'm no different.
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Because the more I researched you, the more I wondered.
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I mean, all right, supposedly 2011, DiCaprio never happened.
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Supposedly, allegedly, Slumdog Millionaire you turned down, allegedly.
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Why hasn't the crossover taken place?
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I don't see why it should.
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You're a big enough name in your own genre.
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But why has crossover not taken place?
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I've said this honestly, but nobody believes it.
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So I'm going to say to you very, very honestly, nobody's ever offered me any work, crossover of substance.
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I may have had conversations with people.
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I know lots of lovely people from the West, from the English film industry, from the American film industry.
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But nobody's offered me any good work.
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You know, I hear actors talk about, oh, yes, I want a crossover.
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I want to take Indian cinema.
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I think I still have to learn how to be able to deliver to the audience that likes me.
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and instead of spreading myself too thin.
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And then, yeah, of course, if you've not been offered a job, how do you take it?
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So really, I've never been offered a film in Hollywood or in England.
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Yes, Slumdog was there, now that you mention it.
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And I spend a lot of time with Mr. Boyle.
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He's very sweet.
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But I was doing Who Wants to Be a Millionaire on television.
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Successfully.
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Successfully at that time.
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And I just felt in the story that was being told, the guy who was hosting was very mean in the story that was being told and I'm like,
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you know, I'm here doing Slumdog Million.
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And the guys who were producing the show wanted me to do the film.
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I just found it, you know, this guy's...
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I was cheating and being dishonest as the host.
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So I just found that it's very strange that I'm being a host and I'm cheating in the film, so I explained to Mr. Boyle that I wouldn't like to do it, please.
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And they're way better actors than me, and I think Mr. Anil Kapoor did it, and he was fantastic as the host.
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When the person's getting close to a million, Well, the top in Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
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That moment, what do you feel?
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Genuinely, when I was hosting it, I would hope they win it.
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I really, really hope they win it.
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But I've done a quiz show myself, and there comes a point when you think,
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how close can I get to getting them to win it without...
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Yeah.
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Did you know what I mean?
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I always did that, you know, when I was, because there's so many people from different parts of the country
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and I really want them to win and you, yes, you do try to be a little helpful.
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But you can't.
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You can't, you can't because the producer keeps shouting in your ears, don't, you've said enough, you can't talk about it.
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And unfortunately, the last four questions or the last two questions are extremely difficult, you know, suddenly they're thrown upon you and you're like,
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oh my God, this person is not going to get the answer and I feel really bad and I try to think, I wish I had some hint
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and I can't mislead the person by trying to give that hint because I also mostly didn't know the answer.
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So in what is left that you have not done that you would like to do?
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And by that, that's not a Hollywood question.
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That is a general, you know, even within your own, within Indian films,
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within production, within, What still remains on your list?
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So Richard, when I started off I just wanted to survive, you know, be able to get a week's work or a month's work or a year's work and say, OK, my films should do well.
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But as years have gone past, I think this whole.. my whole job has become more
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and more motivated towards bringing a new one, technology, into Indian film industry.
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I want to end my career, which is far from ending right now, I have another good 35 years to go.
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I really, really want to make that film, which is loved by the whole world.
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And then nobody on a big stage like this asks me, why haven't you crossed over?
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That film should cross me over.
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That's my dream.
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I'd want you to learn Hindi and Urdu and Arabic to be able to understand that film.
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Did you go on a massive retreat of personal introspection between 2018 and 2023?
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You just had two or three films that were not as successful.
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Suddenly he disappears and everybody thinks, oh, he's licking his wounds, he's feeling sorry for himself.
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And then he comes back in 23 with three blockbusters.
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What was going on in that interim period?
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So you're very kind.
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Yes, I had massive flops and they did very, very badly.
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And I was doing all of that.
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I was licking my wounds.
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I was not in...
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You know what I did?
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For four years?
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Go on.
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I've never said this to anyone, though I've mentioned it, but today, here, I'll tell everyone.
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I learned how to make the best pizza in the world.
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That's what I did.
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Honest to God, I stopped listening to stories.
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I stopped wanting to tell stories.
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I found myself and made myself a small kitchen.
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And I started learning how to make pizzas.
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And I learned what you asked me right to begin with, perseverance.
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Because to get the perfect pizza, it takes millions of square pizzas before you're able to make it completely round.
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So I learned perseverance and I will make the best, best pizza in the world. Can you?
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No. I'm working on it.
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Next four years when you don't see me.
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But was it a difficult moment when your wife and your family and everybody said, will you stop making pizza?
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Go back to work.
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Was it difficult to know now is the time to go back?
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Yeah, actually, you know, there was always a toss-up.
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I was very glad my family didn't tell me, listen, your pizzas are better than your films, stop making films.
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So I was glad they turned around and said, no, as good as your pizza is, I think your films are better.
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They were very encouraging, especially my children, my team, some of them are sitting here.
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And they said, okay, what you're going to do is tell stories.
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And you know, I had become indulgent.
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I had started becoming too innovative.
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I was looking for perfection. And I started failing.
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I needed to look for excellent, I needed to be unique, but I needed to look at the audience, what they want, and I'd stop hearing the crowds.
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I used to go where there are thousands and lakhs of people waving at me, but I wouldn't hear or feel what they wanted to see of me.
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You know, I was going there and waving and I'm saying whatever I make, I'll be innovative.
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So I did a film about a vertically challenged guy, I did a film about a manic psychopathic fan,
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and I'm like, no, people just like to see me giving hope and happiness and love, so let's get back to that.
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And as a result, the movies that you came back to make, and there were three of them last year, were huge successes.
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Therefore, that introspection clearly worked.
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That clearly did the trick.
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Yes, Mashallah, I think it just helped me realize that whatever you do, you have to do for the people or your consumers or your audiences.
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And yeah, it also made me realize one very main thing, that don't forget to pray.
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You have to pray and you have to get back to work.
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Sir, I'm going to leave you with one.
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I'm sorry, I've forgotten.
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What was your name again?
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Your name is, what?
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Bond.
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James Bond.
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He's available for the office.
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Thank you, sir.
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Thank you so much, everyone.
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Good afternoon. and private classes.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 243 sentences and 2654 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:57. The speaker talks at a natural 166 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pizza noun | /ˈpi.tsə/ | A baked Italian dish of a thinly rolled bread crust typically topped before baking with tomato sauce, cheese, and other ingredients such as meat or vegetables. |
| bath noun | /bɑːθ/ | A tub or pool which is used for bathing: bathtub. |
| crossover noun | A place where one thing crosses over another. | |
| flop verb | /flɑp/ | To fall heavily due to lack of energy. |
| successfully adverb | /səkˈsɛs.fə.li/ | In a successful manner; with success; without failing. |
| happiness noun | /ˈhæpinɪs/ | The emotion of being happy; joy; elation. |
| legend noun | /ˈlɛd͡ʒ.ənd/ | The life story of a saint (such stories are often embellished, but any kind is called a legend). |
| pray verb | /pɹeɪ/ | To direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to a deity or any higher being, for the sake of adoration, thanks, petition for help, etc. |
| achievement noun | /əˈt͡ʃiːv.mənt/ | The act of achieving or performing; a successful performance; accomplishment. |
| wound noun | /ˈwund/ | An injury, such as a cut, stab, or tear, to a (usually external) part of the body. |
| actively adverb | /ˈæktɪvli/ | In an active manner. |
| cinema noun | /ˈsɪn.ə.mə/ | A movie theatre, a movie house. |
| innovative adjective | /ˈɪn.əˌveɪtɪv/ | Characterized by the creation of new ideas or inventions. |
| hint noun | /hɪnt/ | A clue. |
| allegedly adverb | /əˈlɛdʒ.ɪd.li/ | According to allegation(s); supposedly, reportedly. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| get back to verb | Return to (an activity) |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. |
| start off verb | To begin. |
| beat up verb | To give a severe beating to; to assault violently with repeated blows. |
| come back from verb | To become successful, confident or effective again after an injury, setback, failure, embarrassment, etc. |
| cross over verb | To pass from one side or area, physical or abstract, to another. |
| go back verb | To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time. |
| go past verb | To elapse. (said of time) |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've been · have reached · I've always tried |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | going, which is · people who know · films which are |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | has been given · you've not been offered · been offered |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 87 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: bath /bɑːθ/, thin /ˈθɪn/, psychopathic /ˌsaɪkoʊˈpæθɪk/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: crucial /ˈkɹuː.ʃəl/, genre /ˈ(d)ʒɑnɹə/, determination /dɪˌtɜːmɪˈneɪʃən/, shout /ʃaʊt/, perfection /pɚˈfɛk.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: successfully /səkˈsɛs.fə.li/, innovative /ˈɪn.əˌveɪtɪv/, allegedly /əˈlɛdʒ.ɪd.li/, supposedly /səˈpoʊ̯.zɪd.li/, ambassador /æmˈbæs.ə.dɚ/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like pizza, bath, crossover.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.