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Shah Rukh Khan was thrown off a bike after Swades co-star crashed it; SRK took the blame to protect him from Ashutosh Gowariker

Daya Shankar Panday, who didn't know how to ride a bike, was forced to do the shot when Shah Rukh Khan fell from a flying bike making Panday believe it was his last day as an actor.

Swades released in 2004. (Photo: IMDb)

In December 2001, Shah Rukh Khan injured his back while shooting an action sequence for Krishna Vamsi’s film Shakti: The Power. He was then diagnosed with prolapsed disc. After trying multiple alternative therapies, he finally opted for an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion surgery which had a disc (the size of a small coin) inserted in his spine. Around this time, he was also shooting for Ashutosh Gowarikar’s Swades. In a recent interview, SRK’s Swades co-actor Daya Shankar Panday recalled a near-fatal accident that involved the star and convinced Daya that his career was over.

Talking to Friday Talkies, Daya Shankar shared, “There is a scene where I ride the bike in the film with Shah Rukh Khan sitting on the back. The reality is that I am not a great rider, but Ashutosh wanted me to ride the bike. Because I didn’t know how to, I suggested that I could sit in the back and SRK could ride it. Ashutosh refused and demanded that I ride it. He said, ‘SRK in the film is a US return, he won’t know the village, so you have to show it to him.’ Ashutosh, on set, is like Hitler. I then finally told him that I haven’t ridden a bike for a very long time, and he said, ‘No, I know you will manage it. You have no option.'”

After the argument, Daya Shankar was preparing for the scene and practicing by riding through the village streets. “SRK, who was sitting right there, watched me and I don’t know whether it was evident on my face or it was just a random thought, he called me by my character’s name and asked, ‘Mela Ram, will you be able to ride?’ I said, ‘Yes’. He then asked me to give him a ride”

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A nervous Daya Shankar pressed the clutch, put the bike in first gear, and accelerated. “You won’t believe it, the bike actually went up in the air and threw SRK on the ground. I had left the bike and I was shivering in fear. I was convinced that this was end of my career. The whole environment on set changed.”

He recalled, ‘This was the same time when Shah Rukh Khan was suffering from severe back pain. So much that he had a physio on set. I am looking at him but I was so scared that I couldn’t even give him a hand to stand up. He then stood up, walked up to me and kept his hand on my shoulder. He quietly said, ‘I knew you didn’t know how to ride a bike.’ He quickly turned towards Ashutosh and said, ‘Ashu, lets take the shot’. Ashutosh gave me a death stare when Shah Rukh stopped him, and said, ‘What are you looking at? It was my fault. I disbalanced it.'”

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