SRK: Zero won’t be a hero without Katrina-anushka
Though Shah Rukh Khan made a solo visit to Dubai to talk up Zero, citing his co-actors’ busy schedule to explain their absence from the GCC leg of the movie’s promotion, he was very vocal about his “dear friends” Katrina and Anushka.
“I am extremely grateful to them for having trusted that they should be a part of the film, because this is a film that takes you flying.
“Zero is an expensive film, perhaps one of the most expensive from India, and it is a difficult film,” Khan told us.
“One night, 8-9 months back we (Himanshu Sharma, Aanand L. Rai and I) were sitting together and at around 4 in the morning, we said, should we take the difficult way and just fly? At that point in time you have other co-actors – they don’t know where they are going, it’s a two heroine film, whose role is going to be better – all these small considerations by these small actors are always there but these two had such largeness of hearts – they said, ‘wherever you want to go, it’s your dream, the three of you… just have fun.’ So the trust is there.”
Anushka’s sensitivity
Over the years Shah Rukh Khan has shown himself to be an extremely generous actor, allowing his co-stars to take the lead, when required, unlike certain of his male counterparts, who are known to hog the screen space at the expense of the film and their coactors. In Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, where Khan acted alongside a debutant Anushka Sharma, there was none of that superstar-newbie vibe – and the credit goes equally to Khan and Sharma. The actor echoes this when he tells us of his long association with his Zero co-star.
“Anushka is extremely conscientious; I’ve seen her from her first film. To just take your own and be your own (like she did in our first film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi) requires actually not technique but sensitivity and Anushka is extremely sensitive.
“I love her for her sensitivity, she understands things and she is also extremely correct and strict, so to do a role of a person who is affected with cerebral palsy – it required training… she had trainers 6 months before we started shooting, so it is not depicted wrongly. When you see the film, there is such consistency in the way she’s done it. Its marvellous.”
SRK’S bet with Katrina
Any other actress would have jumped at the offer to share screen space with Bollywood’s King of Romance, but if we are to believe Khan, he had a tough time convincing Katrina to sign Zero.
“You know Katrina as this glamorous, beautiful lady but what she’s done in the film is contrary to what she’s done in any other film…. And I don’t want to talk about it because I have a challenge with Katrina.
“It was in Dubai and we were chatting in a hotel room and I said,’ do this film’, and she said, ‘I don’t know where is this film going’, so I challenged her saying on the 22nd it will be one of her finest works if she trusts and if she works hard.
“Katrina is nothing if not the most hardworking person in the world. We only get to see the exterior of it. She worked really hard. So I don’t want to say much because I want to win the bet from Katrina first! Like, look wasn’t it the best thing you have done?” Khan might be playing a challenging role in Zero, but he is quick to share credits with his leading ladies. “People might think that I’m taking the chance with this film. Cause I’m playing a vertically challenged person called Zero and all that. But I think the real chance and support has been taken by Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma, they are fantastic – if it wasn’t for them I think Zero would never become a hero.”