I am ugly — this was Shah Rukh Khan’s reaction when he saw himself on the screen for the first time, and decided to ditch his plan to get into acting. The superstar says he still has a “hard time” believing his rise to fame, and says he doesn’t think of himself as a “star”.
“I don’t want to show off but I am genuinely a dream come true. I am a lower middle class boy, an orphan, who got into the city of glamour, became a movie star and the world showered me with love. This only happens in dreams. I never thought of it, Shah Rukh said at an event here.
“I still have a hard time believing it. I never think of myself as a star, sometimes I have to behave like a star, which is not interesting. But I love my job,” he added.
The cine icon ventured into Bollywood with Deewana in 1992 after doing TV serials Fauji and Circus.
“When I saw myself for the first time on screen, this was for the rushes. Rushes are dailies. You shoot the scenes and you see the negatives. That was the time when we had negatives. So, I was looking at Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman rushes in RK Studio. And I realised I am so ugly.
“My hair was so bad! I was doing pathetic acting in front actors such as Nana Patekar, Amrita Singh and Juhi Chawla. I bought a ticket and went to airport realising that I cannot be an actor. However, Juhi and Aziz (director Aziz Mirza) convinced me saying ‘Final would be better’. However, they lied. I never looked better. I kept looking bad. But I feel extremely fortunate as people have loved me so much,” he said.
The actor also said some of stars are also to be blamed for rising ticket prices.
“This whole onus upon keeping ticket pricing which is rising so fast, obviously some of us stars are also to be blamed, because we keep our ticket prices high when we release them on weekends. Movies have become expensive,” he said.
The actor continued: “We do need a lot more theatres in the country. Instead of having 3-4 crore people watching cinema, I want the scenario to reach a place when 20-22 million people watch the film when it releases.” (IANS)
