Nana Patekar says he predicted Shah Rukh Khan’s stardom while shooting Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman: ‘Maine uski pehli film mein hi bol diya tha’

During an interview with News 18, Nana said that he had predicted Shah Rukh Khan’s success way back then. Talking about Shah Rukh, he said, “Bohot acha kalakar hai. Iski pehli film mere saath thi Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman. Release to dusri ho gayi par shoot pehle mere saath hui thi. Main us waqt, puch lo kabhi Shah Rukh ko. Us waqt maine kaha tha, ‘Tu bohot bada star banega’. Pehli film mein hi maine usko bol diya tha (He is a good artist. His first film was with me Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman. Although another film was released first, he shot first with me. At that time, you can ask Shah Rukh, I told him, ‘You will become a big star.’ In his first film, only I told him).”

The 72-year-old actor, who will next be seen in director Vivek Agnihotri’s The Vaccine War, said that every time the two meet, Shah Rukh‘s behaviour is still the same.

“Whenever he meets me, he meets the same way. I have no problem with him. He is my own, younger than me. Why will I ever have a problem with him?” he said.

Guddu Dhanoa, the producer of Deewana, had recently shared how Shah Rukh Khan had refused to do his film as his dates were booked because of other movies. It was the cancellation of 20 days of Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman’s shoot that gave the actor a window to do Deewana, which became a hit.

In an interview, Guddu shared, “Shah Rukh called that his 20 days of shoot was canceled and if I wanted to do it. I said ‘yes’…Again I will say that the almighty writes the scripts, destiny is such that the film for which dates were not available gets released first and is the biggest hit amongst those other five films.”

Shah Rukh Khan will be seen next in Rajkumar Hirani’s Dunki, which also stars Taapsee Pannu. The film is slated to release in December.