New Delhi: "I get people who write in blood. Normally very short letters like I love you," says 38-year old Bollywood superstar Shahrukh 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 only 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 he 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".