Shahrukh Khan’s coming from Delhi to Mumbai and capturing the hearts of the audience with his characters is perhaps one of the most beautiful events in the film industry. But Shahrukh, who is called India’s biggest superstar, has now said that he never thought of becoming an actor, everything just happened. However, his mother, Latif Fatima Khan, played a big role in developing Shahrukh’s love for films.
Shahrukh was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Locarno Film Festival. Shahrukh, who reached Locarno, Switzerland for this event, also gave a long interview and talked openly about his life and films.
Shahrukh fell in love with films because of his mother.
When Shahrukh was asked, when did he think of acting and coming into films? So he replied, ‘To be honest, I never thought of becoming an actor. I was one of those kids who wanted to take part in everything happening in school. Be it 100 meter race or drama, or small plays or exhibitions…’
Shahrukh further said, ‘Watching a film was a big thing. This is from the 80s. Going to the theater was a big deal. My mother was a big fan of films. There was a video cassette recorder in our house. At that time it was a big deal to have this in the house. We were very poor, but my mother’s sister was very rich, she gifted this to us. This used to happen in my mother’s room, and as we say in India – ‘Heaven lies at the feet of a mother.’ My mother used to say this and ask me to press her feet. Shahrukh told that he used to press his mother’s feet and movies kept playing on TV.
‘Old films were available for Rs 1-2 and new films were available for Rs 10. So films kept running one after the other and I started falling in love with films. Once there was a Hindi exam. I was at an Irish Brothers school, a Christian school, very strict, very English speaking. Normal children are weak in the local language, so I was not very good at Hindi. My mother said that if you get full 10 out of 10 in Hindi dictation, I will take you to the theater to watch the movie.
Shahrukh revealed this secret for the first time
Revealing a unique secret, he said, ‘I never told this, but today I will tell you, I probably copied one answer from a friend but I got full 10 marks. And then my mother took me to the theater to watch a film for the first time. Surprisingly or coincidentally, this film was ‘Joshile’, which was made by the director with whom I later did most of my films – Yash Chopra. Shahrukh said that he is sitting in Locarno, Switzerland because of her, because he saw that film.
Shahrukh further said that after the death of his parents, he wanted to go out of Delhi and do something. He told, ‘I was doing masters in communication and filmmaking, I wanted to become a director. I came to Mumbai and then television came to India, so I got some small roles. I came to Mumbai in 1990 for a year. I had said that I will work for one year and earn one lakh rupees. I would like to go back and become a scientist or a journalist… but I have not gone back till date.
Talking about Shahrukh’s work front, now he will be seen in the film ‘King’ with his daughter Suhana Khan. Sujoy Ghosh is directing this film.