Tigmanshu Dhulia recounted that Shah Rukh Khan used to sleep on the floor of the bus during Dil Se shoot lunch breaks.
Tigmanshu Dhulia recalled about Shah Rukh Khan sleeping on the bus floor during Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se shoot.
Shah Rukh Khan, one of India’s most enduring superstars with a career spanning almost 30 years, is admired not only for his immense talent but also for his humility, as noted by actor-director Tigmanshu Dhulia. Having worked with Shah Rukh on films like Dil Se and Zero, Dhulia shared in a recent interview with Mashable India that despite his stardom, Shah Rukh has always remained down-to-earth.
Recalling their time on the sets of Dil Se, Dhulia mentioned that during the shoot in Ladakh, there were no vanity vans, so Shah Rukh would sleep on the floor of the bus during lunch breaks. “He is such a humble person. I can’t even tell you. I could see even during Dil Se and he was already a big star at that time,” Dhulia said. Even though crew members would move around the bus while he rested, Shah Rukh never asked for any special treatment or privacy, demonstrating his grounded nature.
Dhulia also shared his experience working with Shah Rukh in his home production Zero, where he played the actor’s father. He highlighted Shah Rukh’s respectful behavior on set, noting how he would pull chairs for everyone and ensure others had eaten before himself. “Shah Rukh was so respectful towards everyone. He would pick chairs for everyone. Ask them if they had had lunch,” Dhulia said, adding, “Yeh sanskar hain uske (These are his values).”
Dhulia emphasized that Shah Rukh’s greatness lies in his humility and good manners, even though as a star, he wouldn’t be expected to do such things. “It’s his manners that make him great,” Dhulia concluded.
On the work front, Shah Rukh Khan is currently busy with the shoot of King. which will reportedly also star his daughter Suhana Khan and Munjya star Abhay Verma. At the Locarno Film Festival, Shah Rukh Khan also opened up about King for the first time and said, “It is an action drama, it’s a Hindi film. It’ll be interesting. I’ve been wanting to do a film like that for some time, and I really wanted to do a film like this for seven, eight years. We just felt Sujoy would be the right choice, because we wanted it to be very emotionally correct. We are all coming together to make a cool, massy, action, emotional film.”
King Khan further mentioned that despite his absence in Hollywood, his ultimate dream isn’t about personal fame on a global stage — it’s about something much larger. “My dream is to get that one Indian film to be seen with the kind of audience that a big Hollywood film is seen, whether I’m part of it as an actor, as a light man, as a producer, as a writer, as a presenter,” Khan revealed.
He also added, “The next film I’m doing, King, I have to start working on my film King. Have to lose some weight a little, stretch a little so my groin doesn’t get caught while doing action. It is painful. It’s the worst thing to see me on sets after action because I look really cool in the film but I’m all tied up and suddenly you see people and send flying kisses.”
Shah Rukh Khan was last seen in Dunki with Taapsee Pannu.
