‘Saath mein theatre kar chuke hain!’: Deepika Amin when she was offered Shah Rukh Khan’s mother’s role in Fan

 

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However, when Maneesh Sharma clarified that she would be playing the role of a young Shah Rukh’s mother in the film, she was finally convinced. Deepika shared, “Then the makers explained that the actor has a double role in the film. In one of the roles, he plays himself… he is a star who is SRK’s age, and the other one is that of a young guy in his 20s. They had digitally de-aged Shah Rukh to make him look young. They needed someone in that age group to play young Shah Rukh’s mother. The experience of working on the film was great because I was meeting Shah Rukh after a long time.”  

Further speaking about her equation with the star and reuniting with him, the Safar actor said “Woh hamesha bahot pyaar se milta hai (He is always very warm).” During the shoot of Fan, the two often sat down and spoke about their theatre days and recalled their time in Delhi. “We shot Fan in Mumbai and Delhi and reminisced about the old times on the film sets. Purani yaadein taaza karte the, and told each other, ‘Yaad hai aise hua tha, aise kiya karte the (We took a trip down memory lane and reminded each other of things we used to do in Delhi while doing theatre).. Theatre ki kahaniyaan toh bahi khatam hi nahin hoti hain. Theatre walon ke kisse kabhi khatam hi nahin hote. Toh bahot accha laga use dobara milkar (Those who are from theatre, never get tired of speaking about their experiences.),” she said.  

In an earlier interview with Rajshri Unplugged, Deepika Amin fondly remembered SRK’s energy, consideration, and generosity, noting how he would always ensure that every female cast member got home safely at night after rehearsals, driving them in his van. “The energy he (SRK) had back then, is still there. People talk about his energy, his enthusiasm and how he is always saying ‘Let’s do this, let’s do that.’ And he used to help everyone a lot. Whenever we used to do rehearsals, (in theatre) it would get late at night and Shah Rukh was the only person who had a car. Shah Rukh and Rituraj were the two people who had cars and they used to drop all the girls to their respective homes. It felt like a transport vehicle and everyone used to pile up. Shah Rukh had the Maruti van and he used to drop everyone one by one to their homes. Everyone used to help each other. We used to all go and buy costumes together.”

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During the latest interview with the YouTube channel, Deepika Amin also spoke fondly about her Raanjhanaa co-stars, Sonam Kapoor, Dhanush, Abhay Deol and shared that director Aanand L Rai was cool and easy going. The actor, who auditioned for the role, said, “Sonam Kapoor, who is the lead in the film, plays my daughter and Kumud Mishra played my husband. The film was headlined by Dhanush. It was my first big Bollywood film. Woh experience bahot accha raha (The experience was quite nice). First big film. The cast and crew was very nice. Sonam, Dhanush, Abhay Deol… Toh mazaa aaya (I had a lot of fun). Banaras mein humne shoot kiya (We shot in Banaras). Film was a super duper success and I started getting more work. Work generates work. Aapke ek kuch accha ho jaye uske upar aapko aur kuch accha milta jata hai.” 

The 56-year-old shared that Dhanush would treat the cast and crew to delicious South Indian fare. “Dhanush ji ki badi se van thi. Woh apna chef lekar aaye the aur amazing sa South Indian khaana banta tha jo hum sabke sath share karte the. Sonam bichari diet pe thi toh sambhal sambhal kar khati thi. It was a very good group. Aanand L is very cool and easy-going hain,” she recalled.