Shah Rukh Khan says he was ‘shocked’ when he saw Hrithik Roshan dance, recalls Rakesh Roshan’s ‘scary’ direction style

Shah Rukh Khan shared his memories of working with Rakesh Roshan and watching Hrithik Roshan dance for the first time.

New Delhi | Updated: January 18, 2025 05:36 PM IST

Shah Rukh Khan rents two apartments in Mumbai.

Hrithik Roshan is one of the biggest superstars of his generation but, many of his younger fans might not know that his family’s legacy actually began with his grandfather, music composer Roshan. In a new documentary titled The Roshans based on the legacy of the family, Shah Rukh Khan shared anecdotes on each of the three generations of Roshans – composer Roshan, actor-filmmaker Rakesh Roshan and actor Hrithik Roshan, and said that it was Rakesh who taught him a very valuable lesson when it came to facing the camera.

Shah Rukh, who worked with Rakesh in 1990s films King Uncle, Koyla and Karan Arjun, recalled that the director had a “unique” way of saying action and cut which would “scare” him. “Rakesh ji has this unique style of saying ‘action’, ‘cut’, he scares you,” he said and added, “I think I used to speak too fast. He was the first director to say, ‘Slow down, don’t speak too fast, don’t hurry. Take your time.'”

When Shah Rukh Khan was working with Rakesh Roshan in Karan Arjun, Hrithik Roshan was one of the assistants and later, when Hrithik made his debut with Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai, he was seen as one of the biggest competitors to SRK. “To be one of the biggest superstars in the history of Indian cinema is mind boggling. And when that song began to play… (hums ‘Ek Pal Ka Jeena’). When I saw him, I was shocked he could dance like that. That is something I didn’t know,” he said. SRK and Hrithik later worked together in Karan Johar’s Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.

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Shah Rukh, in the same chat, also revisited his childhood when he would listen to Roshan’s music on a radiogram in the 1960s. He shared that sometimes, he would also dance for his mother and father while listening to those songs. “When I was in Delhi, there used to be radiograms, before the advent of television. My parents and we all used to actually sit around the radiogram and listen to music. Sometimes, I would even dance for my father and mother. Roshan saab’s songs would play very often, and many of them were sad songs. Like some of them I hum, and then there were philosophical songs,” he said.

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