British actor Alyy Khan, who is of Pakistani origin but has worked regularly in Bollywood, recalled his experience working with Shah Rukh Khan on the film Don 2. In a recent podcast appearance, the actor remembered how Shah Rukh arrived on set in Berlin, and proceeded to go off-script in a scene, which caused concern on set.
He told podcast host Nadir Ali that Shah Rukh had just flown in from London, where he was working on the film Ra.One, and because of this, he hadn’t memorised his lines for the elaborate scene that they were supposed to film in Berlin. Don 2 was directed by Farhan Akhtar, who Alyy described as a childhood friend.
Alyy said in Urdu that in India, like abroad, there is a call-sheet on every set, which assigns numerical rankings to all cast members. Shah Rukh had of course been assigned the ‘number one’ call sign. Alyy said that he was on set in freezing November, ready for his shot, when the walkies started buzzing. “Number one has arrived, number one has arrived,” he remembered. But ‘number one’, he said, hadn’t arrived on set, but on the base, which was some distance away.
Eventually, they broke for lunch, and Alyy was summoned to Farhan’s trailer for a quick read-through with Shah Rukh. He said, “It’s obvious that since I’m doing a scene with Shah Rukh, I’ve memorised my lines. But because Shah Rukh has been busy, he hasn’t been able to memorise his. We hugged, sat down across from each other, and on my left, all the heads of department had gathered. Shah Rukh put on his glasses, and said that we should get through it quick because he was hungry. So, we read the scene, but I could see the others through my peripheral vision. Right at the end of the scene, Shah Rukh went off-script and added a line, and I could see Farhan silently shaking his head.”
When they were done, Shah Rukh got up to go for lunch, but Farhan stopped him and said, “Shah, can I request one thing of you? That line you added at the end… Can we do the scene as it was written in the script?” But Shah Rukh looked at Farhan and said, “Abey saale, Don kaun hai? Shah Rukh Khan hai na? Public ko Shah Rukh Khan dekhna hai. Relax, don’t worry about it.” Alyy took Farhan to the side and told him, “Abhi toh tera aaya hai number one, edit tere haath mein hai, usse jo karna hai karne de.”
Later, when they were on set and ready to shoot the scene, Shah Rukh retained his new line. Alyy said that he exchanged a silent look with Farhan, who indicated to him that he will address it.
Alyy exchanged a silent look with Farhan. “I was like, ‘Farhan, bata isko, yeh toh k-k-k-Kiran kar raha hai’. Kaunse school mein aagaye hain hum bhai? Ya toh hum uss 90s ke school mein khelein, ya toh aaj ke modern zamane mein. I said, ‘Tell him, man, what is he doing? If we want to do this 90s-style overracting, we can do it’. But I was giving a more grounded performance; we weren’t on the same page. I was laughing during the rehearsal, but if you do it on set, then that’s what’ll be in the film. So, I needed to bring my performance to his level…”
Alyy admitted that every star is a star for a reason, and that Shah Rukh had developed his persona over many years. “This is what he was trying to say; that if he doesn’t give the public Shah Rukh Khan, they’d feel robbed,” he said, describing SRK as a ‘super-intelligent guy’.
Alyy Khan recently appeared in the Apple TV+ series Shantaram, and has three Indian projects lined up — The Archies, directed by Zoya Akhtar; Tehran, starring John Abraham; and the Hindi remake of The Good Wife, starring Kajol. Shah Rukh Khan will soon be seen in the action-thriller Pathaan, his first starring role in over four years. He will follow it up with two more releases this year, Jawan and Dunki.
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