The actor was moved to learn that his upcoming romantic film with Yash Chopra is to be the filmmaker’s last directorial venture.
What started off on a poetic note with actor Shah Rukh Khan reciting a few lines from filmmaker Yash Chopra’s film went on to a light-hearted discussion with the veteran sharing interesting anecdotes right from his days as an assistant director to his forthcoming Jab Tak Hai Jaan.
However, the tete-a-tete between the hit Bollywood jodi held to celebrate the senior filmmaker’s 80th birthday on Thursday ended on an emotional note, when Chopra announced his retirement from direction.
“It’s a sad-happy moment,” a visibly-moved SRK said after a moment of stunned silence, after asking his “father-figure” if that’s what will really make him happy. Chopra on his part revealed that he now wants to mentor young talent and make up for all the lost time with wife Pamela, insisting that he’s always followed his heart and now this is what his heart’s telling him to do, so he’s really happy.
What was truly surprising was that Shah Rukh who is usually known to turn hours late for any event, was late only by 40 minutes or so at this packed affair. In fact, Chopra even ribbed him, as he spoke about the punctuality of other stars.
“Why are you pointing towards me every time you talk about actors being on time,” SRK playfully remarked. Chopra even spoke about his poetic bonding with late actress Meena Kumari and about his foodie connection with Dilip Kumar, and shared their special recipe of kheema and fried egg on top.
While SRK revealed his own almost karmic connections with Chopra, he also got the filmmaker to spill the beans on the casting coup when he got Rekha and Jaya Bachchan together opposite Amitabh Bachchan in Silsila (1981). The filmmaker admitted that he had a word with each one of them separately “for obvious reasons” and that he had replaced actresses Parveen Babi and Smita Patil with Rekha and Jaya respectively, though the shoot had already begun with them in Kashmir.
The filmmaker also made another revelation, this one about Khan himself. Chopra said that till date Shah Rukh has never asked for the script or the fees.
“He tells me to just call him whenever he is wanted for the film and has till date never talked about the fees,” shared Chopra.
A self-confessed die-hard romantic, Chopra also spoke about his take on love. Talking about his forthcoming film with SRK, Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma he called it the most satisfying film till date. Chopra added, “It’s like saving the best dish for the last!” before signing off with a couplet the closet poet had written himself.
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