Baking pizzas taught Shah Rukh perseverance when his films tanked at the box office

MUMBAI: Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan, who set the box-office on fire in 2023 with his three releases -- ‘Pathaan’, ‘Jawan’ and ‘Dunki’, has reflected on a time when his films were not connecting with the larger audience.

The actor did ‘Zero’, in which he played a dwarf, in 2018. The film directed by Aanand L. Rai tanked at the box-office after which Shah Rukh took a break for four years before he changed the trajectory of Bollywood with ‘Pathaan’.

The actor recently attended the World Government Summit in Dubai, where he spoke about the time when his films weren’t working. The actor shared that he shifted his focus from movies to culinary art for a brief period to make a strong return.

“I had massive flops, wehich they did very, very badly. I was licking my wounds. But you know what I did? I learnt to make the best pizza in the world. I stopped listening to stories, I stopped wanting to tell stories.

“I made myself a little kitchen, and I started learning how to make pizzas. I learnt perseverance. Because to make the perfect round pizza, you have to first make a million square ones."

Asked if his family encouraged him to return to work, and if making a comeback was difficult, Shah Rukh said, “I was glad that my family didn’t tell me, ‘Listen, your pizzas are better than your films, stop making films'. I’m glad that they turned around and said, ‘As good as your pizzas are, your films are better’. They were very encouraging, especially my children and my team.

“I’d become indulgent. I’d started becoming too innovative. I was looking for perfection, and I started failing. I needed to be excellent, I needed to be unique, but I needed to look at what the audience wanted."