‘Shah Rukh Khan’s character in Darr could have raped Juhi Chawla’s Kiran’, says writer Honey Irani, defends his behaviour as ‘genuine love’

Honey Irani said that Shah Rukh Khan's character in Darr was dealing with his own problems. In the film, he plays a man who is obsessed with a girl and stalks her relentlessly.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | May 3, 2025 01:08 PM IST

3 min read

Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla in Yash Chopra's Darr.

The Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Darr was a significant film in the actor’s career. After playing the anti-hero in Darr and Baazigar, SRK established himself as an actor who could easily pull off being the bad guy, in an industry obsessed with uncomplicated heroes. But, over the years, his character in Darr has been questioned by the audience. Yash Chopra’s perceived romanticisation of the character, who stalks the woman he claims to love and even murders people just so he can be with her, has not aged well with certain viewers. In a recent interview, writer of the film Honey Irani said that they wanted to portray SRK’s character as a man who actually loved Juhi Chawla’s Kiran. Honey said that they wanted to draw a line between love and lust, and she insisted that he could have raped her but he didn’t.

In a chat with Friday Talkies, Honey said, “He was crazy about her. With this, me and Yashi ji were very conscious that we don’t want it to look like lust. It shouldn’t be that he just wants to be with her and sleep with her and stuff like that. He says ‘I will marry you, I will make you meet my mother’.” Honey, who is the mother of filmmakers Zoya Akhtar and Farhan Akhtar, insisted that what SRK’s Rahul felt for Kiran was “genuine love”. “He was fascinated and madly in love with her. Otherwise, he could have raped her when they were on the boat but it wasn’t that. So we made that very clear that there is a very thin line in this,” she said.

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Honey did not address that Rahul was ignorant of Kiran’s wishes and forced his presence in his life, even when it put her in harm’s way. “He was a complex man and he had his own problems. Even when he said her name, he would be so scared that he would stammer,” she said.

Honey said that Aamir and Sunny were offered the role at first but both passed on it. SRK jumped at the opportunity. “We narrated it to Aamir but something happened between him and Yash ji, I don’t know what happened and he said no. We narrated it to Sunny also. He said I will do the other role, the hero one. And then we talked to Shah Rukh and Shah Rukh jumped on it. He said ‘yeah, definitely I am doing it’,” she said.

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