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When Shah Rukh Khan revealed how Aditya Chopra convinced him to do DDLJ, came up with ‘K-K-K-Kiran’ in Darr

Shah Rukh Khan had revealed how Aditya Chopra became his friend and convinced him to do his first film as a romantic hero, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, which ultimately turned him into Bollywood's 'King of Romance'.

Aditya Chopra- Shah Rukh Khan- DDJL- DarrSRK on how Aditya Chopra convinced him to do Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. (Photos: Netflix, SRK and Kajol in a scene from DDLJ)

Filmmaker Aditya Chopra, who chooses to stay away from any kind of media attention, came into the limelight with his first on-screen interview in Smriti Mundhra’s The Romantics on Netflix. Aditya impressed the viewers with his immense knowledge of the film industry and his passion and conviction when it comes to filmmaking. Today, on his birthday, we look back at how he was the one who turned Shah Rukh Khan into Bollywood’s “King of Romance”.

Many celebrities like Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Madhuri Dixit and Katrina Kaif, among others, made an appearance on the docuseries where they shared anecdotes about starring in Yash Raj Films and their experience working with Aditya Chopra and his father Yash Chopra. Shah Rukh Khan spoke candidly about his bond with Aditya and shared that it was during the shooting of Darr that he and Aditya became friends.

Budding friendship between Aditya Chopra and Shah Rukh Khan

Talking about Aditya, SRK had shared, “To be honest, during Darr, Yash Chopra was the topmost director of the country. Although they were very loving, I felt a little ill at ease in this big set-up. So, the person who I became friendly with, who I could chat with, was Adi.”

SRK had revealed that in his first YRF outing Darr, it was Aditya who came up with the popular “K-K-K- Kiran” after the star shared a story of a boy who used to stammer in his school. SRK had said, “I had a classmate who had a stammer and then we did some little study, some BBC documentary where they talked about that people’s minds become aware to one sound, and it’s like a sharp current. So, you can’t say the word because you become aware of a sound. Let’s make him aware of the woman he loves the most, her name. So, I only stammer on the word Kiran. It was just for that one word because he’s so aware of her.”

How Aditya Chopra convinced SRK to do DDLJ

While Darr brought SRK on the map and he became one of the most sought after actors in the Hindi film industry, it was Aditya who offered him Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and made the country fall in love with him. Before DDLJ SRK was considered an action star who also did comedy. SRK had credited Aditya for his ‘romantic hero’ tag. He had shared, “Adi used to tell me, ‘Your eyes have something that cannot be just wasted on action’.”

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When SRK was offered the the script of DDLJ, he was quite reluctant to do the role as he did not want to play the role of a romantic hero. On this he had said, “Adi came with his assistant director, Karan Johar, and they narrated Dilwale Dulhania to me, and I was shocked. I did not know what to say. And they narrated this really sweet, namby-pamby film to me, about this guy who loves… doesn’t even run away with the girl! I was like, ‘What is this? What is this film they are telling me?'”

Even as SRK was reluctant to do a romantic film, Adi had not given up on his. Adi had shared how he convinced SRK to do the film in The Romantics. He had said, “So, I was working with Shah Rukh in Darr. And I actually realised that Shah Rukh is a really soft, and really nice guy. But he pretends to be this macho and he likes action. But he’s actually not that. I was looking for a very unpredictable romantic hero.”

Aditya also shared how he once he walked up to Shah Rukh and told him, ‘I feel you are hesitant to say no. You might choose not to do this which is completely fine. But I would just advise you not to shut your doors on never doing a love story. Because in this country, a superstar will only be that person who will be every mother’s son, every sister’s brother, and every college girl’s fantasy’.”

SRK ultimately singed Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and it released in theatres in 1995. The film holds the record for the longest-running film in the history of Indian cinema and Shah Rukh Khan started to be known as Bollywood’s ‘King of Romance’.

 

 

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