5 min learnNew DelhiSep 5, 2026 04:20 PM IST
Shah Rukh Khan rose to fame at a time when Bollywood was nonetheless underneath the shadow of the underworld. Movie stars had been typically focused with threats and calls for, and Khan was no exception. In a latest interview, filmmaker Sanjay Gupta recalled how Shah Rukh refused to again down and as an alternative advised them to “simply shoot me” in the event that they wished.
Throughout a podcast on Hussain Zaidi Recordsdata, Gupta shared, “The one man within the movie trade, Shah Rukh Khan, when he was threatened, he stated, ‘I’ll by no means do the movie or present, I’m a Pathaan, simply shoot me if you’d like’. I’m not petrified of you, however I can’t work with you and never do reveals for you. He truly earned their respect. In addition they should have felt that there’s no less than one particular person…”
Nevertheless, Shah Rukh lived underneath heavy safety and police safety for 3 years following the incidents.
When Shah Rukh spoke about receiving threats
In an outdated interview with comic and actor Ruby Wax, Shah Rukh Khan had additionally spoken in regards to the threats he acquired through the Nineteen Nineties.
“They’d arrange a system, and they’d say you do it. I could not have succumbed to it, however then they shoot you. So, generally it’s good to do a movie,” he stated.
Wax additional questioned, “You’re severely saying somebody calls you and says be in my movie or I’ll blow your head off?”
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The actor nodded and replied, “Not as properly as you’re saying it.”
He additional elaborated why Bollywood was a straightforward goal for the underworld. When requested if he had ever acquired dying threats, the actor stated, “Oh sure, on many events… I had lots of safety for 3 years.”
When Shah Rukh Khan confronted calls from Abu Salem
Movie critic Anupama Chopra additionally documented Shah Rukh Khan’s encounters with the underworld in her e-book King of Bollywood: Shah Rukh Khan and the Seductive World of Indian Cinema. She wrote about his run-ins with gangsters together with Abu Salem, Chhota Rajan and Chhota Shakeel.
Based on Chopra, the issues round Shah Rukh’s security started in 1997, when he was engaged on Mahesh Bhatt’s Duplicate. Senior Maharashtra police officer Rakesh Maria, who had been concerned in investigating the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, reportedly alerted Bhatt a few attainable risk to the actor’s life. Shah Rukh was subsequently supplied with a private bodyguard.
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Chopra additionally recalled an incident wherein Shah Rukh acquired a direct name from Abu Salem. The gangster allegedly abused the actor for refusing to work on a movie backed by a producer near him.
Though Shah Rukh was reportedly “depressed and scared”, he remained composed through the dialog and tried to defuse the state of affairs. When Salem continued to stress him to just accept a specific movie, Shah Rukh, in keeping with Chopra, advised him, “I don’t inform you who to shoot so don’t inform me which movie to do.”
‘Nothing can occur to me’
In his autobiography An Unsuitable Boy, filmmaker Karan Johar had additionally spoken about how assured Shah Rukh was when Karan acquired comparable threats from the underworld earlier than the discharge of his movie Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.
Based on Johar, Shah Rukh was not keen to let the threats intimidate him. He wrote, “Shah Rukh stated, ‘What nonsense!’ He went inside and dragged me out. He stated, ‘I’m standing right here in entrance of you. Let’s see who shoots you. I’m standing proper right here.’”
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Johar recalled that Shah Rukh then reassured his mom, saying, “I’m a Pathan. Nothing can occur to me and nothing will occur to your son. He’s like my brother. Nothing’s gonna occur.”
Bollywood and underworld connection
The connection between Bollywood and Mumbai’s underworld had existed for many years, however it grew to become significantly seen through the late Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, with allegations of underworld financing, interference in movies and intimidation of actors. The killing of music baron Gulshan Kumar in 1997 additional highlighted the hazards going through the trade. The nexus got here underneath larger scrutiny with the Chori Chori Chupke Chupke case in 2001, wherein financier Bharat Shah and producer Nazim Rizvi had been arrested over alleged hyperlinks to gangster Chhota Shakeel.
