Mani Ratnam cautioned Gajraj Rao after he pushed Shah Rukh Khan too hard during Dil Se shoot: ‘SRK said do it again, he’s a beautiful man’

Shah Rukh Khan became an action hero after 25 years in the movies with 2023’s Pathaan but as per his own admission, he always wanted to be an action star. In a recent interview, Gajraj Rao recalled an incident when he did a small action scene with Shah Rukh for Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se, and how SRK was keen on making it as realistic as possible, even though director Mani Ratnam was scared that Shah Rukh might get hurt.

In a chat with Bollywood Bubble, Gajraj recalled sharing screen space with Shah Rukh in the 1999 film and shared an anecdote from the time when they had to shoot a scene where his character pushes Shah Rukh’s character against the wall. “There was a scene where my character captures his character and I was supposed to push him against the wall. We did the rehearsal and I pushed him hard. After the rehearsal, Mani sir came and said ‘just take care, you don’t have to push him so hard.’ He said so because he thought Shah Rukh is a big star and we shouldn’t push him so hard,” he said.

Gajraj also shared how Shah Rukh reacted to this and shared, “The moment Mani sir left, Shah Rukh said ‘no, no, Gajraj, do the same thing’.” Calling him a charmer and a beautiful man, Gajraj said that Shah Rukh has a way of making everyone feel like they have a part of him. He also said that Shah Rukh can interact with an auditorium full of people, and everyone would feel like they had a personal conversation with him.

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In another conversation with Zoom, Manisha Koirala had shared another anecdote from the set of Dil Se. Manisha said that she always appreciated how, despite being a big star, Shah Rukh would have his tea sitting on the floor. Director Tigmanshu Dhulia, who was also a part of Mani’s crew, had previously shared with Mashable India that since Mani would have a strict one hour break for lunch, Shah Rukh would quickly finish his food and take a nap on the floor of the bus.

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