Shah Rukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan’s onscreen chemistry and bromance is one for the books. Their association dates back to the early 1990s when they had shot for Ashutosh Gowariker’s debut directorial Pehla
Nasha. They went on to work together on Kal Ho Naa Ho and recently collaborated on the Netflix film Kartavya, where Shah Rukh serves as the producer and Saif, an actor.
Speaking exclusively to News18, Saif recalls the earliest impression that Shah Rukh left on him. “There was an interview he did for King Uncle where they asked him what he wants to do. He said that he wants to be the number one star and the biggest thing that India has ever seen. That was the first time I heard something like that because we weren’t used to that kind of confidence,” he tells us.
“He has always been like that. I remember meeting him then and then consistently onwards. Thereafter, we did Pehla Nasha where we shot one scene together. We were working around the same kind of time when he did Baazigar with Venus and I was doing Main Khiladi Tu Anari with them,” he adds. Saif also fondly remembers an instance from their Temptation Tour in 2004 in the USA.
“We did all these shows which were the best shows anyone has ever done onstage. During that time, one day, he called me and said that let’s not tell everybody how house full it is. He had his reasons. But I’ve never got a call from someone saying that let’s downplay how successful a show is,” Saif shares. For him, Shah Rukh has been a friend and someone he has always looked up to in ‘many many ways’.
“I can actually write a speech on how special he has been and about his passion for work, but let me just sum it up by saying that he has been a visionary,” Saif remarks. He reveals that it was more than two decades back that Shah Rukh had started thinking about conceptualising Red Chillies VFX, something Saif took some time to wrap his head around.
“He was obsessed with VFX at one point of time but it wasn’t happening. He said that it’s going to be the biggest thing. And I kept saying, ‘You’re losing me.’ We were at a bar in London. He told me, ‘No, you don’t understand. VFX is going to the biggest thing.’ This was about 25 years ago,” says the Cocktail and Adipurish actor.
Saif goes on to credit Shah Rukh for helping him with some pro-tips, which helped him during the making of films like Hum Tum. “We shot films like Kal Ho Naa Ho at a time when New York was different. It was a very different time. It was way, way back and I saw all if it close up. He taught me how to kind of be a main lead in a movie when I got offered Hum Tum. I learnt a lot from him, I mean a little bit (laughs),” he remarks.
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