Shah Rukh strikes a chord with Punjabis

Manav Mander

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 13

“Tussi yaar apne hi ho gussa na karo,” said the Bollywood’s King Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, while trying to make up for his late arrival by two hours. He was in the city to promote his upcoming flick “Jab Harry Met Sejal” at Waves Mall.

When asked why his every film has a Punjabi connection, he replied candidly: “My wife Gauri is a Punjabi and belongs to Hoshiarpur. She will not like if I do not put anything Punjabi in my films”.

Apart from the wife connection, he said, Punjabi people are very colourful. They have colourful lifestyle, colourful culture and traditions, colourful sports, colourful festivals and they actually add a new life and zest to the movie.

Putting a Punjabi song or character in a film today has become a reality as they add life to the film. Punjabis are all over the world and Punjabi songs in the film are an instant hit, not only in India but also worldwide, said Khan while praising the land of five rivers, Punjab.

When asked about his act of driving a tractor, he said he once drove a tractor in the movie, “Veer-Zaara” and now in this movie. “Driving a tractor is actually very difficult. During “Veer-Zaara”, I thought the tractor was old that’s why I was finding it difficult to drive. But this time also the experience was the same as earlier,” he smiled.

The movie was not extensively shot in Punjab like “Veer-Zaara” and there was just a seven or eight-day shooting schedule here, he said.

Telling about the film “Jab Harry Met Sejal”, he said it was a simple love story. Harry is a Punjabi settled abroad who takes care of group tourism in Europe, and there he meets Sejal, who is from Gujarat. She belongs to a family who follows their traditions strictly.

“It is a simple love story with a simple message that you should live life on your own terms but should never forget your roots, your culture,” he says.

Talking about other films in which tourist guides played a prominent role, he said movies such as “Jab Jab Phool Khile” and “Raja Hindustani” also depicted the life of tourist guides. Though guides know a lot about directions and destinations, they might actually lose themselves and this fact is aptly described in the movie, said Khan.

When asked if he would once again like to do a character with grey shades such as in “Baazigar” and “Darr”, he said definitely he would. “I did these movies with a negative character when lead actors doing negative characters was a trend. If I got some interesting script, I will definitely love to do a negative role once again,” he said.

Talking about his son entering Bollywood, he said: “One does not even know how to walk properly while the other is busy with his college studies. Let him finish his studies and then he can decide about his choice of career,” he said.

Talking about the importance of music in a film, he said: “Initially when I started my film career, I knew nothing about music and thought what was the need of songs in films. But now, I have come to know the importance of songs in films. My career has been made by the hit songs of my films. Every country has its own music and when it comes to India, there is a singer or musician in every family. There is a lot of music and songs in our lives and both are inseparable,” he smiles.

Shah Rukh said he was a great fan of Nooran Sisters. As they both came on the stage, he was all praise for their Sufi style of singing. He insisted his director, Imtiaz Ali, to include a song by them.

Nooran sisters were all praise for Shah Rukh and on his insistence, sang a song from the film which went like, “Jee ve sohneya jee, bhave kise da hoke jee. Ki hoya je aaj ni saada, kade taan hunda si”. Nooran sisters said this was the song sung by their great grandmother and it was very close to their heart.

King Khan Tweets

When  asked about the recent unfortunate killings of Amarnath yatris, he  said the incident was very saddening and he had also tweeted about  it which went like “Saw pilgrims determined to continue Yatra in spite of  the dastardly attack. Faith makes you brave and will always win over  cowardice and terrorism”. While sharing his picture with Nooran  Sisters on Twitter from his today’s visit, he tweeted,  “Butter chicken, Butter milk and Butterfly all the way from Punjab”.