To his tens of millions of fans, actor and producer Shah Rukh Khan is the unrivalled King of Bollywood, known for his macho film persona.

But the high-energy, fast-talking superstar, who is visiting Singapore next weekend for the Zee Carnival, showcasing Indian entertainment, gives a rare glimpse of his sensitive side in an hour-long telephone interview from Mumbai.

India's top romantic leading man confesses that in real life, he is 'painfully shy of women'. Khan, who turns 43 next month and has been married to Gauri Khan for 17 years, with whom he has two children, adds: 'I am just very shy of girls. I have never looked into my wife's purse or her wardrobe.'

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He used glue to tame his hair

Khan trivia

• In his early days, fledgling star Shah Rukh Khan tamed his unruly mane with a distinctly unglam mix of homemade glue and water.
• His co-star from an early film Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman (1992), Juhi Chawla, was so horrified by Khan's scrawny frame and untidy hair when she first saw him that she called his actor-producer friend Viveck Vaswani and screamed incredulously: 'Eek, this is the next (Bollywood star) Aamir Khan?'
• His first name, Shah Rukh, means 'face of the king'.

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