‘When I am sad, I come to my balcony.’
‘When I am happy, I come to the balcony.’
‘God is so kind that he’s given me a lifetime balcony ticket.’
Photograph: Shashank Parade/PTI Photo
“I was low on confidence when we started working on Pathaan because I was coming to set after a long time. I get scared. I feel insecure. I lose confidence many times in the day. But that is why I keep going because the weaker you are, the stronger you get,” Shah Rukh Khan tells the media on Monday, January 30, 2023, afternoon as he addressed his latest film’s juggernaut success at the global box office.
“When my films don’t do well, I feel terrible. There are thousands of people associated with it. We feel guilty. But hit or flop, Monday onwards, you get back to the set and become labour class and work hard. If you can’t do that, you shouldn’t make films,” he adds.
Deepika Padukone, looking ravishing in a floral gown, clarifies that the makers had set out to make a film with love and not to break any box office records.
Their intention, she says, was to bring the audience together and bring them joy, adding, “Shah Rukh Khan taught me that is it’s important to work with people you have a good time with. It was such a lovely atmosphere to work in and that’s what the audience is taking back.”
When Deepika was asked how she feels about Pathaan being the biggest hit of her career, SRK interrupts: “Yeh hum sab ke careers ki sabse badi hit hain!“
Photograph: Shashank Parade/PTI Photo
When Zero failed at the box office and people said his movies wouldn’t work anymore, Shah Rukh decided to try his hand at something else. He talks about it here:
Photograph: Shashank Parade/PTI Photo
Shah Rukh praised Yash Raj Films for being a “wonderfully gutsy” production house.
The SRK-YRF jodi kicked off with Darr in 1993 and has had a long-lasting and fruitful partnership.
Referring to 2016’s Fan, which failed to click with the audience, Khan says, “It is very wrong when somebody belittles a creative team like Yash Raj and says, ‘Unki woh film theek nahi thi.’ Of course, no one does it for any other reason but to please the audience.”
“As a professional, I think Yash Raj Films has a lot of guts to make different films. People cannot forget that the banner came up with something so wonderfully different like Lamhe.”
The actor added that the studio and its staff are responsible for who he is today.
“Personally, I love them to death. It is an amazing set of people. To make successful cinema, there is a very simple line I tell everybody: ‘If you can’t die for cinema, you have no right living off it’ and Yash Raj is like that.”
Photograph: Shashank Parade/PTI Photo
Deepika Padukone spills the beans about SRK’s singing skills — “He’s a good singer” — and Shah Rukh jumps at the moment to sing a romantic song to his leading lady.
Photograph: Shashank Parade/PTI Photo
Pathaan Director Siddharth Anand said he wanted to “earn a Shah Rukh Khan film” after being in the industry for almost 20 years.
He started his journey as a writer in the 2004 YRF rom-com, Hum Tum and made his directorial debut the next year with Salaam Namaste. He went to direct many big-ticket projects like Ta Ra Rum Pum, Bachna Ae Haseeno, Anjaana Anjaani, Bang Bang! and War.
Calling Pathaan “a mammoth task”, Anand said that while working on the film, he realised that directing Shah Rukh Khan was a “responsibility”.
“He is like clay. Whatever you say, he’ll do it without any loss of faith. Through that I realised if by any chance, a Shah Rukh Khan film doesn’t do well, it is because of the director, not him,” Anand asserts.
He also spoke about the negativity that Pathaan had to endure before its release: “The last two months were stressful because of the circumstances around the film.”
But he was “relieved” to get support and see people flocking to the theatres in huge numbers.
Photograph: Shashank Parade/PTI Photo
Siddharth Anand tells us why he couldn’t sleep a night before Pathaan‘s release here.
Hit or flop, the one thing that remains constant in Shah Rukh’s 30-year career is the adulation he receives from the his fans.
The superstar says it is this love that keeps him going during the bumpy sections of the ride.
“My elders had told me when things go wrong, go to the people who love you. My fortune is that I have billions of people who love me. When I am sad, I come to my balcony. When I am happy, I come to the balcony. God is so kind that he’s given me a lifetime balcony ticket,” Shah Rukh says with his usual humour.
Photograph: ANI Photo
When a fan shouts “I love you”, Shah Rukh, with his signature wit, says he will start a dating service.
