SRK thanks fans on ‘Jawan’ success, credits technicians as ‘real heroes and heroines’ of film

PTI, Sep 15, 2023, 8:07 PM IST

Source: Instagram

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan on Friday thanked fans for making ”Jawan” a blockbuster and dedicated its success to the technical team, calling them the ”real heroes and heroines” of the movie.

Directed by Tamil filmmaker Atlee, the pan-India film also stars Nayanthara and Vijay Sethupathi as well as Deepika Padukone in a special appearance. It hit the screens worldwide on September 7 in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

At a press conference to celebrate the movie’s success, Shah Rukh said it took four years to complete ”Jawan” due to Covid. The film has made almost Rs 700 crore at the box office since its release on September 7.

”Very seldom do we get this opportunity that we get to live so many years with a film. ‘Jawan’ has been with us for four years because of Covid and time constraints. There were so many people involved in this film, especially people from down south who came and shifted to Mumbai for the last four years, working day and night for this film.

”A lot of people didn’t return to their homes. There are many who had their kids here, like director Atlee. The real heroes and heroines of this film are the technicians who worked hard for the last four years,” Shah Rukh said.

The superstar was joined by the film’s director Atlee as well as co-stars Sethupathi and Padukone. Actor Nayanthara was absent due to her mother’s birthday and SRK led the crowd to sing happy birthday for them.

The film’s editor Ruben said despite being the producer and the star of the film, SRK was generous and asked him to cut his scenes to incorporate more scene’s of Sethupathi’s Kaali.

”He wanted more scenes of the villain. I keep away from being friends with actors because they ask us to save their scenes, but this experience was different. I learned how to be more patient,” he said.

The film’s writer Sumit Arora said he felt that they had good dialogues when he wrote ‘jab main villain banta hoon na toh koi hero mere saamne tik nahi pata’.

”It was a challenge for me to write in a new way for SRK, for Vijay Sethupathi, for the girls. I have learnt writing while being on the set with the director. ‘Jawan’ has been an enriching experience,” Arora said.

Actors Sanya Malhotra, Aaliyah Qureshi, Ridhi Dogra, Leher Khan, Sunil Grover and composer Anirudh Ravichander, director of photography Vishnu Kumar, production designer T Muthuraj were also present at the event. When asked about his negative turn in the film, Grover joked that SRK’s production company paid him good money to do so.

”It was always a dream to work with SRK. Thank you Atlee sir for giving me this opportunity to work with SRK. In one of the scenes, he punched me. I went to him and asked for another one. I have a different connection with SRK, I got my first job because I would mimic him,” Grover said.

Ravichander, who also performed on ‘Zinda Banda’ at the event with singer Rajakumari, said he has always been a Shah Rukh Khan fan and as a school kid watched ”Kal Ho Na Ho” seven times.

”Every time towards the end of the film, I would cry. This is what he has done to me. I went to ‘Don’ on the first day of the first show in Chennai. So it starts from there. I always wanted to make music for films by the time I turned 30. But I think I was blessed that I could start making music in the South when I was 18-19,” said the composer, who shot to fame with ”Kolaveri Di” in 2014.

”I was always waiting to do a Bollywood film and even in my wildest dreams, I didn’t think that my debut would be with King Khan,” he added.

Ravichander, who is 32, said SRK’s infamous sleep cycle matched his and they would often bond over music and other topics.

”It was not always music, I used to have a lot of girl issues and I would ask him for advice,” he joked.

Malhotra, who plays Dr Eeram in the movie and one of the women on SRK’s vigilante team along with Qureshi and Khan, said she had zoned out when Atlee narrated the script to her over zoom.

”…I never told him but I had decided to do this film after just five minutes. I was zoned out during the rest of the call as I was imagining myself working with SRK,” she said.

Aaliyah said SRK was ”kind and cool” when she first met him and treated everyone like co-actors and ”not like little kids” in front of him.

”Anyone who says don’t meet your heroes, clearly hasn’t met Shah Rukh sir. He is just so awesome,” she said.

Leher said they would chat about random things when not shooting.

A Red Chillies Entertainment presentation, ”Jawan” is produced by Gauri Khan and co-produced by Gaurav Verma.