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Actor Juhi Chawla said that her business credentials are mostly unearned, because the driving force behind the Kolkata Knight Riders’ success is her husband Jai Mehta, and her old friend, actor Shah Rukh Khan. At a recent event, she said that it didn’t take her too long to bow out of creative meetings, because Shah Rukh insisted on having them late at night. She also revealed that she disliked the initial colour scheme for KKR’s jerseys, even though Shah Rukh had suggested it.
At an event organised by the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Juhi spoke about her IPL journey, and admitted that she wasn’t as involved in setting up the franchise. She became associated with the IPL because her husband was friends with Lalit Modi, the disgraced businessman who spearheaded the venture over a decade and a half ago. “Lalit had this great idea of starting the IPL, and he wanted that the owners should be glamorous,” she said.
She continued, “All I thought at the time was, ‘How nice that cricket and Hindi films are coming together’. Jai and Shah Rukh handled everything. It just came together. We didn’t know anything about running a cricket franchise, and I remember going to Shah Rukh’s home for meetings, where literally from putting the jingle together, to thinking of the uniform they’ll have, everything was done in house. I still remember, he made it black and gold, Shah Rukh, and I was not happy with it. I thought ‘what is this black and gold?’ Because black is considered inauspicious, isn’t it? But they worked more than I did.”
Narrating another anecdote about how it was like in those early days, she said, “Shah Rukh used to be busy during the days. He was working a lot so our meetings would be scheduled for 10 pm. They would start by 11 pm. Then everyone would talk for a while so by the time the meeting would start, it would be 12-12:30 pm and I would start dozing off in the meeting. After 2-3 meetings, I stopped attending. I said you guys do this, I am not coming.”
Juhi and Shah Rukh are longtime friends. They also launched the production house Dreamz Unlimited, which transformed into Red Chillies Entertainment. They’ve worked together on films such as Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani, Darr, Ram Jaane, Yes Boss, and more. The Kolkata Knight Riders won their first IPL title this year.
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