Shah Rukh Khan just wants to chill. It's two weeks after the tepid release of Asoka and his face has the emptiness of spent passion-a beloved project's end and its fatigue. The past few months have been a flurry of post-production, publicity, premieres and prayer. He smokes and talks at equal speed. "This year has been too exciting, I feel very nice. I just want to be."

To be or not to be Shah Rukh has never been the problem, but 10 years in the business and 35 films later, the dream behind Asoka was to be greater. Having vowed never to make a movie again if Asoka disappointed, and seen in the context of Aamir Khan's runaway hit Lagaan, srk is now a superstar at the crossroads.

Of course, if you are Khan, then crossroads means a looming seaside bungalow in suburban Mumbai, a fleet of cars and hordes of producers with script ideas, bearing crores of rupees in cash. Khan can, any time he wants to, start any number of films he wants to. But what he really wants to do is to try make a difference.

Asoka was one such try. Visually sumptuous but loosely scripted, the film has received what the industry euphemistically calls "mixed reports". The film has done reasonably well in Mumbai and south India. But the rest of the country turned up its nose. Delhi rejected it in the first week, Rajasthan registered unimpressive collections and the audience of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab preferred the Sunny Deol action slammer Indian. Overseas also, Asoka has made middling waves (see box). The bottom line is that Lagaan, Aamir's debut production, found the vital balance between box office and critical acclaim while Asoka aimed for the same but floundered. "Asoka was a slipshod product both content-wise and in production value," says a leading star secretary. "The trade expected more from Shah Rukh Khan's banner."

Despite the funds and access to India's best film talent, the Khan-Juhi Chawla-Aziz Mirza company Dreamz Unlimited has not managed to emulate the success of its namesake, Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks. The company has two more projects in the pipeline, one to be directed by choreographer Farah Khan and the other by Mirza but getting the cash in place may not be as easy. Though both movies feature Khan, Bollywood pundits believe that unless the next Dreamz venture is unabashedly "safe" (read box-office proven director making the feel-good boy-meets-girl story), Khan will have a hard time selling it. Despite Chawla having promised "our million fans that we will make different films and this is our attempt to do so".

For Khan it was: he had laboured to cinematically interpret the 3rd century b.c. Mauryan emperor. He put aside his phobia of horses and rode fiercely, cut his fees to Rs 35 lakh, worked on developing his physical prowess and even learned the Kerala martial art of Kalaripayuttu. At times, Khan's disappointment shows: "When your best is not good enough, sure it makes you sad," he says. But in the same breath, the vitality is back, "I will do it wrong 10 times so long as I have the money to survive." The report card so far reads: Producer-two releases; one flop, one average. Actor-last delivered a hit, Mohabbatein, one year ago. So where does that leave Shah Rukh Khan?

The producer in him has taken a beating. Asoka isn't a disaster like Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani, the first film Dreamz Unlimited produced in 1999. Primarily because the partners undersold Asoka at Rs 1 crore per major territory as compared to the Rs 2 crore plus that an srk starrer normally sells for. So while distributors are unlikely to lose money, the company has taken a Daisy Cutter. They might, however, recoup their Rs 14.5-crore investment after satellite and dvd sales. The monetary loss will be easy to recover; the actor doing one commercial would plug the hole. But the reputation will be harder to restore. However, the star's status remains intact. "How else," says Film Information's Komal Nahta, "can you explain an almost art film like Asoka getting full houses on day one?" Khan is yet to realise his role. "There is no dream role. You give me a role and I'll make it a dream. I wish there was more scope and adventure in filmmaking," he says.

Chasing the unlimited dream has led him to Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas. Khan has tried to bring a subtext of humour into the legendary tragic hero. But first, there is Johar's Kabhi Khushi, Kabhi Gham (K3G), which has him doing what the industry likes him to do: sing, dance and woo Kajol. If only, say the number crunchers and even Khan's friends, he would also start making similar films. "I keep telling him that Dreamz must make all-out commercial films," says Johar, "but finally we are industry children and he is a Delhi boy. He doesn't want to know the nitty-gritty of business. He is happy and proud that he's made Asoka."

Happily, proudly, Khan asks his son Aryan, "Who is the best actor in the world?" The four-year-old, smiling in recognition of a ritual that has been played out many times, points at his father's chest. But enrapturing the audience is no child's play.

-with Sandeep Unnithan and Arun Ram