"I get people who write in blood. Normally very short letters like 'I love you'," says 38-year old Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.

Well into a two-month song-and-dance tour of Europe and North America, Khan, who figures in Time 's Asian Heroes, was quoted by the magazine in London, "I get people who fall sick and think I can cure them."

SRK, as he is popularly known, has had a run of hits since 1995 and is believed to have raked in a quarter of a billion dollars.

"No one holds a candle to him," says director and friend Karan Johar, who insists on casting Khan as lead in all his films. "Forget the top 10. He is one-to-fifty by himself," Johar said.

Khan began his filmy career as a wannabe director who drifted into soap-opera acting and moved to Mumbai from Delhi in 1991 to make a fresh start after his parents died.

His secret, says Khan, is always playing the coy, cheeky lead. But playing the good guy all the time can be a burden.

Khan says he craves something different. "I want to beat people up. I tell the directors... next time I knock on a door and a girl opens it, can I slap her? Or shoot her?"

He says has played the same part for so long that he worries it has followed him home. "I am acting all the time. When I go on set, I don't have to prepare myself. And, when I am not on set, I am still acting".