"Cinematically, technically South cinema is fantastic": SRK on his desire doing 'Jawan' after 'Dil Se'

LOCARNO: Superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who made 2023 blockbuster year for his fans with Atlee's directorial 'Jawan', revealed how he wanted to do a South genre film after 'Dil Se'.

In a candid conversation with the artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival, Giona A. Nazzaro, SRK shared his thoughts on South cinema.

He said, "If you ask me honestly for years me to regionalize Indian cinema 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 is so many languages. So, somehow it's all Indian cinema. For me, greatest story telling parts of India if I could say like this is South Indian parts. They have some outstanding story telling."

Shah Rukh called South cinema fantastic in terms of cinematic and technical.

"Malayalam cinema, Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, they have some of the greatest superstars of our country and we all know it in India it's just that recently with some huge hits including Jawan, RRR, Baahubalii, everybody started noticing it all over. But cinematically and technically South cinema is really really fantastic," 'Pathaan' actor stated.

King Khan also revealed that it was his desire to work in the South genre after working in Mani Ratnam's Dil Se.

He added, "It was desire after have worked with Mani Ratnam in a film Dil Se that I should work in a south genre film. Not just get a South Indian director to make a film. Each area every person has a different take on telling a story, South has a specific one, larger than life, robust, lots of music going on. They love their heros to be larger than life. So I really enjoyed, I have never done a film like that as a matter of fact that I would take my kids and say please see am I looking okay because I would just be clapping my hands and it was as if the greatest moment in the history of mankind."

Praising director Atlee, SRK also sweet moment when former named his son after his dad's name.

He continued, "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 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 Indians cinema which transcended all kind of boundaries and did really good business and was really loved across the whole nation. So great experience for me Jawan was.

SRK returned to the silver screen with Siddharth Anand's 'Pathaan' in January 2023. In the film, SRK donned an action avatar and left everyone in awe. The film broke several records at the box office and managed to grab a name in the list of one of the highest-grossing films in the Indian film industry. The film marked SRK's first hit after his sabbatical of four years post delivering a series of duds like 'Zero' and 'Jab Harry Met Sejal'.

After 'Pathaan', King Khan returned to theatres in September with 'Jawan'. The film once again saw SRK in an action avatar. The film collected over Rs 1000 cr. at the worldwide box office. 'Jawan' has redefined box office success, captivating audiences with its gripping storyline and stellar performances, and rewriting record books along the way.

Shah Rukh Khan added another achievement to his illustrious career. On August 10, he became the first Indian personality to be honoured with a lifetime achievement award, the so-called Pardo alla Carriera, or Career Leopard at the 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival.