Shah Rukh Khan Wasn't Willing To Do DDLJ, Here's What Aditya Chopra Advised Him: 'Don't Shut Doors...'

Aditya Chopra, one of India’s most successful filmmakers, is turning 53 today, on May 21. He’s known for directing hits like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and producing record-breaking films like Ek Tha Tiger and War. Aditya, the son of legendary filmmaker Yash Chopra, had a tough time convincing Shah Rukh Khan to star in his first film, DDLJ, which went on to become a classic.

In the Netflix movie The Romantics, Aditya Chopra talked about the time before he started filming Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Aditya had helped his father, Yash Chopra, on the movie Darr, which featured Sunny Deol, Juhi Chawla, and Shah Rukh Khan. He and SRK became good friends during the making of the 1993 film, and Aditya was so impressed by him that he wanted him to star in his first movie as a director. Khan, who was new to the industry back then, was excited too, thinking Adi would make an action film with him.

When Chopra and Karan Johar (who was Adi’s assistant director at the time) came to tell him about DDLJ, Shah Rukh Khan wasn’t impressed. According to SRK, “it just wasn’t the film I wanted to hear,” and Aditya kept saying, “your eyes have something that can’t be wasted on action.”

Even though SRK wasn’t interested, he didn’t know how to refuse. So, Aditya kept visiting his sets for two months to convince him. Eventually, Aditya felt he was running out of patience. He remembered being on the sets of Khan’s film Trimurti, where an elderly female fan told him she didn’t like that he died in all his films.

Just fifteen minutes later, SRK and Aditya talked where Adi recalled telling him, “I’m feeling you are hesitant and you are not being able to say no to me. I would just advise you that don’t shut your doors on ever doing a love story because in this country a superstar will only be that person who will be every mother’s son, every sister’s brother, every college girl’s fantasy.” Aditya recalled that the next time they saw each other, Shah Rukh said yes.

On the work front, Shah Rukh Khan is all set to reunite with Anirudh Ravichander. The music composer who worked with King Khan for his 2023 movie Jawan, has now been reportedly roped in for the actor’s upcoming movie, King.