Zeeshan Ayyub reveals difference in working with Shah Rukh, Aamir, Salman: ‘Current went through me when SRK shook my hand; Aamir obsesses over every line’

Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub recalled collaborating with Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan, and highlighted how each of those experiences was different.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | June 30, 2023 01:10 PM IST

Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan have never starred in a film together.

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Actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub holds the rare distinction of having worked with the three Khans — Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan. In an interview, he spoke about how different each of them is to work with, and revealed that his desire to continue being an actor in the film industry was reignited after his first meeting with Shah Rukh.

Zeeshan worked with SRK in the film Zero; he worked with Aamir in Thugs of Hindostan, and with Salman in Tubelight. In an interview with Siddharth Kannan, he was asked to highlight the differences between the three Khans, in terms of his experience with them.

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He said in Hindi, “With Shah Rukh, it’s his energy. Everybody talks about it because it’s true. That energy is addictive, you can’t help but feel inspired. When I met him for the first time on the set of Raees, and he shook my hand… At that time, I was in that zone where I was thinking that I’d quit the film industry after doing one film with Shah Rukh, because I was getting such lousy work. But when he shook my hand, I actually felt a current go through my body. And I thought that I had to stick around. It was amazing.”

He continued, “With Salman, it’s like he comes and says his lines very quietly and leaves. We didn’t have too many scenes together, anyway. Aamir is obsessed with perfection, to the point that it becomes slightly difficult to find a way to put your spin on your character. He obsesses over every line, every pause. And I’m not that kind of actor. It’s not that I have a problem, but I like having some room to experiment. It was interesting.”

Incidentally, each of these three experiences resulted in films that were critically and commercially unsuccessful. Zeeshan admitted that the back-to-back failure of Zero and Thugs of Hindostan affected him negatively, and that he stopped getting offers for some months. He was most recently seen in Hansal Mehta’s Netflix series Scoop.

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