Shah Rukh Khan with children wearing his mask in Delhi on Tuesday. Picture by Ramakant Kushwaha

New Delhi, Feb. 12: Every time a Roshan or a Bachchan is in the news, expect a certain Khan to make his presence felt.

Shah Rukh Khan today launched yet another avatar of himself just three days before the Hrithik Roshan-Aishwarya Rai Bachchan movie Jodhaa Akbar arrives at theatres.

After the six-pack Dard-e-disco, get ready for SRK the schoolmaster. In STAR Plus’s new Kya Aap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez Hain? — the biggest ever game show on Indian TV with a prize money of Rs 5 crore — Shah Rukh will play quizmaster all right but as a teacher in a classroom set with schoolchildren as his sidekicks.

The channel has no launch date ready and hasn’t even shot a promo of the show with Shah Rukh. So why announce it now?

“I go wherever I am called to... whenever I am free,” Shah Rukh told The Telegraph.

In December 2006, Shah Rukh had formally announced his return to television as the host of Kaun Banega Crorepati within a week of the release of Hrithik’s Dhoom:2 and a week before Amitabh Bachchan’s Baabul was to hit the theatres.

But today he said: “I have very little say in the timing of the announcements. I just came back from the Berlin Film Festival and the channel wanted me to come down here for the official announcement of the show.”

He joked: “I’ve been out of work for three months after Chak De! India and Om Shanti Om and now I will finally get to shoot for something.”

Earlier, the actor had entered the ballroom of the Oberoi hotel, the venue of the media conference, on a bicycle — just as Amitabh Bachchan had done at the IIFA Awards in Amsterdam in 2005.

Asked about the Raj Thackeray-Bachchan controversy, SRK showed that his balancing skills went beyond bicycles.

“Raj is a friend and I also know Amitji very well. But these events, in some way, are linked to politics -- and I am far removed from politics,” he said.

“As far as regionalism goes, I was born and brought up in Delhi. My father is from Peshawar. My family is from Hyderabad. I stay in Mumbai and I have a cricket team in Calcutta. I don’t know where I am from. The only identity I have is ‘Indian’.”

The buzz is that the new show -- an Indian adaptation of the hit international format Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? -- is being introduced because the Shah Rukh-hosted KBC did not do as well as expected and does not guarantee a great sequel.

“We may come back with KBC again... that is being worked upon,” Uday Shankar, CEO of STAR Plus, and Siddhartha Basu, the producer of both KBC and Paanchvi Paas, said almost in chorus.

But Shah Rukh has a two-year contract with STAR Plus with an option of extending it to a third season. Hence, Paanchvi Paas.

The show has adult contestants answering fifth grade-level questions with help from a group of 10-year-olds, who make up the class taught by Shah Rukh.

“The format of the new show is more easygoing as opposed to KBC, which was more strict and we had to be very careful about everything,” SRK said.

“Paanchvi Paas is comparatively more fun and in that way is more ‘me’. So I think I will be able to bring my personality more to this show as we go along.”

Any new quote?

“I am the most famous Indian in the world.”

Question for a fifth grader: Was that aimed at the Bachchans and Roshans?