Lillete Dubey recalls Shah Rukh Khan’s theatre days as a teenager: ‘He was always on 50 Red Bulls, said I’m going to be a star’

Lillete Dubey worked with Shah Rukh Khan when he was still a teenager and even at that age, he knew that he was going to be a star.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | June 30, 2023 03:26 PM IST

3 min read

Shah Rukh Khan always knew that he was going to be a star.

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Lillete Dubey, who has worked in films like Gadar, Monsoon Wedding, Kal Ho Naa Ho, Baghban, among many others recently shared that she worked with Shah Rukh Khan in theatre when he was still a teenager. Dubey shared that she had set up a theatre company in Delhi and Shah Rukh, who was just 18-19 years old at that time, was “delightful” and had the energy like “he was always on 50 Red Bulls.”

Lillete recalled, in a podcast with Cyrus Broacha, that she did a project with him then which was similar to Sesame Street, and also starred Raghubir Yadav. “Shah Rukh was just delightful even when he was young. He was always on 50 Red Bulls, like that kind of energy,” she recalled and added, “He had a lot of charisma. Of course, he was talented and super amount of energy.”

Lillete then recalled an anecdote from those days that has stayed with her even after three and a half decades. She shared that she was once talking to Shah Rukh and they were talking about the art of being an actor. But, even then, Shah Rukh was confident that he was going to be a star. “At that time, I’ll never forget he told me. He said, ‘I don’t want to be an actor, I am going to be a star, I am going to be a rock star.’ With his little dimples and all, but he meant it. There was that kind of focus that he had that he was going to be that,” she shared.

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Shah Rukh and Lillete have worked together in films like Chalte Chalte and Kal Ho Naa Ho. She said that over the many times that they have worked together, he has always been very “affectionate” towards her. “I must say Shah Rukh’s always very very nice. He is very sweet, very affectionate, very warm, very loving whenever he meets me. I have to say that,” she said.

She also remembered that even at the peak of his romantic hero era, Shah Rukh wanted to do an action film so when she finally watched him in Pathaan, she thought he did very well. “Once he told me, this romantic hero and all is nice but I’d love to do an action film. So when I saw him in Pathaan, I said this is what he wanted to do. I thought he did it very well,” she said.

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