Superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who delivered an immensely successful year for his fans with Atlee’s directorial Jawan, shared his aspirations and admiration for South Indian cinema during an engaging conversation with Giona A. Nazzaro, the Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival. Khan expressed a profound desire to work in a South Indian film, a notion that he had entertained since collaborating with Mani Ratnam on the film Dil Se.
Reflecting on the diverse and rich tapestry of Indian cinema, Khan articulated, “If you ask me honestly, for years, me calling Indian cinema regionalized is wrong. It’s just that our country is so vast that we don’t have different dialects across the nation; we have languages across the nation. So, there is Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali—there are so many languages. Somehow, it’s all Indian cinema. For me, the greatest storytelling parts of India, if I could say it like this, are South Indian. They have some outstanding storytelling.”
Shah Rukh Khan lavished praise on South Indian cinema, commending its cinematic and technical brilliance. “Malayalam cinema, Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema — they feature some of the greatest superstars of our country, and we all know it. In India, it’s just that recently, with huge hits including Jawan, RRR, and Baahubali, everybody started noticing it all over. But cinematically and technically, South cinema is really, really fantastic,” Khan elaborated, emphasizing the artistic prowess prevalent in the Southern film industries.
Khan’s interest in the South genre was piqued significantly after his collaboration with Mani Ratnam in Dil Se. He remarked, “It was my desire, after working with Mani Ratnam in Dil Se, to work in a South genre film. Not just get a South Indian director to make a film. Each area and every person has a different take on telling a story; South has a specific one—larger than life, robust, with lots of music. They love their heroes to be larger than life. I really enjoyed it. I had never done a film like that.
. As a matter of fact, I would take my kids and say, ‘Please see, am I looking okay?’ Because I would just be clapping my hands. It felt like the greatest moment in the history of mankind.”
The global audience was reminded of Shah Rukh Khan’s charismatic appeal when fans gathered to attend his conversation at the 77th Locarno International Film Festival in Locarno, Switzerland. During the festival, Khan shared a touching anecdote about his connection with Atlee. He recounted, “Yes, language was a bit of an issue to start off with, but then we started gesticulating. I would look at Atlee, who’s a wonderful guy. He incidentally also had a baby while we were making the film. Meer, whom he named after my father, which was very sweet. We made most of the film just shaking our hands and having a great time over idli-dosa and some chili chicken. I think genuinely, it’s one of the first fusions of Hindi and South Indian cinema which transcended all kinds of boundaries and did really good business and was really loved across the whole nation. So, it was a great experience for me.”
On August 10, Shah Rukh Khan added another prestigious accolade to his illustrious career by becoming the first Indian personality to be honoured with a lifetime achievement award, the Pardo alla Carriera, or Career Leopard, at the 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival. This recognition underscores Khan’s monumental contributions to the global film industry and his enduring influence on cinema.
Khan’s return to the silver screen was marked by the release of Siddharth Anand’s Pathaan in January 2023. In Pathaan, Shah Rukh donned an action-packed avatar that left audiences in awe and set new benchmarks at the box office. The film garnered immense success and secured its place among the highest-grossing films in the Indian film industry, revitalizing Khan’s career after a series of underperforming films like Zero and Jab Harry Met Sejal.
Following the overwhelming success of Pathaan, Shah Rukh Khan returned to theatres in September with Jawan. The film, once again, showcased him in a dynamic action role and amassed over Rs 1,000 crore at the worldwide box office, reinforcing his status as a cinematic titan.
As Shah Rukh Khan continues to explore new frontiers in Indian cinema, his passion for storytelling and his dedication to his craft remain evident. His admiration for South Indian cinema and his aspiration to break conventional barriers underscore his commitment to evolving as an artist and his unrelenting quest for cinematic excellence.
