Superstar Shah Rukh Khan returned to the big screen this year more than four years later and emerged as the box office disruptor. Both Pathaan and Jawan crossed the Rs 1000 crore mark globally and set the ticket counters ringing incessantly. His third release of 2023, Dunki, might not have matched shoulders with his previous releases but it opened to a whopping Rs 29.20 crore. Though slowly, it managed to garner more than Rs 300 crore at the worldwide box office and the film continues to run successfully in theatres.
And now, in an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha, Dunki director Rajkumar Hirani reveals that Shah Rukh already saw the numbers coming and was sure that though the comedy-drama would win hearts, it wouldn’t rake the kind of figures that actioners like Jawan and Pathaan did.
Hirani says, “After doing two back-to-back action films, Shah Rukh was looking forward to Dunki. He was happy doing something like this. Shah Rukh is an intelligent man and was aware that people were following a trend and liking action films. He had always told me not to expect huge numbers at the box office initially. He knew it was a slow burner and the audience and family would eventually lap up to the film and start coming in. More than anyone, he was preparing me and that is what exactly happened. We have seen many families coming together to theaters to watch the film.”
While many are aware that Shah Rukh Khan was Hirani’s first choice for his 2003 directorial debut Munna Bhai M.B.B.S, not many know that the 3 Idiots director has credited the superstar for script input in the Sanjay Dutt starrer
The filmmaker says that his 20-year long-cherished dream was finally fulfilled with Dunki. “Who doesn’t want to work with Shah Rukh? It took me 20 years before I could work with him. Even back home, when my mother who is 91 years old, I saw excitement on her face when she came to know that I was working with Shah Rukh (laughs). Everyone just loves him. For me, the journey was really exciting. The amount of hard work that he puts in and the respect that he gives to the entire team and there were so many other facets of this man that I could discover while collaborating with him on Dunki.”
The PK filmmaker explains that Dunki was one of the most challenging scripts for SRK and the actor gave more than he could to the role, “Taapsee (Pannu) is a sardarni and most of the other actors are Punjabi, they have lived in Punjab like Balli (Anil Grover), Buggu (Vikram Kochhar) and even Vicky (Kaushal) so the language and the milieu of the film was familiar to them. But Shah Rukh was the only actor who is an urban person and has (played) urban roles (before). I’ve seen him walk that extra mile and work very hard. My phone is full of videos that he had sent me where he is rehearsing every day before the shoot. He didn’t leave one stone unturned.”
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