Shah Rukh Khan on ‘Pathaan’ success: In these four days, I’ve forgotten my last four years

03/02/2023

As fans in the room cheered, 'Shah Rukh Khan is back, Bollywood is back', John Abraham interrupted to say, "Shah Rukh Khan is not back. He just went to a loo break." John's remark was received with a thunderous cheer.
Khan took a 4-year break from the big screen only to return with the spy thriller 'Pathaan'. The film which was released on January 25 has been breaking several records at the box office every day since. From the biggest opening day collection in the history of Indian cinema to the fastest Rs. 500 crore collection, the SRK magic has spread across the world. The past five days has been nothing short of a festival for fans as they cheered, cut cakes, burst crackers, and danced to celebrate the return of the King.
In a first, the team of 'Pathaan' including Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, John Abraham, and Siddharth Anand met the media and fans after the release of the film. The team had decided to not do any promotional events for the movie including trailer and song launch events and media interactions, therefore making the event in Mumbai the first gathering of team 'Pathaan' off-screen.
While they spoke, sang, and danced their heart out at the event, here are some highlights from the meet:
On Pathaan's reception:
The night before the release of the film, director Siddharth Anand revealed that the whole team was together till 3-4 am, and the first show of the film was scheduled for 6 am. “This is the first time in my career that I was nervous. Gauri had asked me, ‘Can you sleep before a release?’ I had told her I sleep easily. But this time, I just couldn't sleep. Our film was coming out at 6, so the heart started beating fast. I now know why, because the film was about to be a blockbuster. From now, I won't sleep before any release,” Siddharth said.
Shah Rukh Khan said that the past four days since the release of ‘Pathaan’ helped him forget the past four years. "This is an experience that's yet to sink in. Maybe we will be more grateful to God.
There were times when we had to make calls to people to make them release the film with ease and they did that. I want my films to release with love. I am sure some friends of mine got too excited while watching the film and must've broken a chair or two. But the goal is that they should just feel happy watching the film. That it should be an experience, more than an empty packet of popcorn.”
Soon after the film was released there were memes of the almost-kiss between Shah Rukh Khan and John Abraham. While Khan played ‘Pathaan’, a RAW agent, John played the antagonist Jim, a former RAW agent who went rogue. While they are at loggerheads on screen and not leaving any opportunity to bash each other or outsmart each other, on stage SRK and John just could not stop showering love on each other. It seems like the two also saw the memes on the almost kiss between them as addressing it SRK said, "I love him too. I tied kissing him also. He did too. Not like it was one-sided love."
"I got an opportunity to work with Shah Rukh. I don’t think he's an actor anymore, he's an emotion. May be that's why I nearly went to kiss him in a lot of scenes (laughs),” says John Abraham about the almost kiss. The actor also called SRK, the number one action hero of the country.
Khan also went on to praise John and his character. "I really believe the backbone of Pathaan is Jim played by John. To play a bad guy who is so... To be rightly bad, to take a cynical viewpoint of the world and to play it to such strengths. He was very gentle and kind to me in action scenes,” he shared.

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