When Nobody Recognized Shahrukh Khan

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is rocking at the box office and Shahrukh Khan’s simple middle class avatar is getting all the rave reviews. And getting into the character of Surinder Sahni was the most memorable time SRK had while shooting for RNBDJ“The first character is Surinder Sahni and we wanted him to look like a middle class guy, having a fixed routine - perhaps to the extent of being boring. We also wanted to give him a little bit of amusing quality without making him a caricature and to get all that, I think a physical appearance was important. Especially, for the movement of the story, the look was very important. One day, I put a moustache and got some hairpiece done and showed it to Adi and he said, ‘This is the guy he should look like.’ It’s not how weird or funny I look, but the simplicity of the character will permeate through the screen.I think the most memorable part was the first seven-eight days when I changed my look for Surinder Sahni. When I used to walk on the sets, nobody would recognise me.I got a taste of things that will come 30 years later in my life when I will no longer be a star and nobody will recognise me. I think that is the most memorable moment but I hope it never happens to me ever again because not to be recognised after 20 years of such high recognition is something I wasn’t ready for.”

Shahrukh says he identifies more with Surinder than with Raj and Rahul that he has been playing over the last 15 years.“I am basically very ordinary in the way I think, in the way I do things. I come from an educated lower middle class background and I have never lost touch with that. Suri is what I really am. And my challenge as an actor is genuinely to make Surinder Sahni the new romantic icon.I want everybody not to love Raj anymore and say ‘We want to be Suri’. The romantic iconic status crown now shifts from Raj and Rahul to Surinder Sahni because he’s got a good heart.”

We hope so too!