Shah Rukh Khan – spent childhood in the laps India’s finest actors

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan who started his career on stage, speaks candidly about his past association with it. SRK feels that being part of theater tends to develop a superiority feeling in the actor. As per the Badshah ‘Theatre is like life where there is no retake’. Shah Rukh Khan’s father had a canteen at the NSD mess and he used to come there after his school to wait for his sister. Being a cute child he spent his childhood in the laps of India’s finest actors.

Shah Rukh Khan feels that whatever appreciation that he begets today, is all due to the formative years that he spent with the theater stalwarts. Who taught him the finer points of acting in their laps. SRK said, “I used to call Raj Babbar, Babbar sher uncle as he used to teach me some of the greatest plays, be it ‘Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda’, ‘Razia Sultana’ or ‘Tughlaq’. I have only grown up wanting to be an actor growing up watching these actors, be it Rohini Hattangadi along with many others. I may not meet them now, but they have taught me how to act. Anupam Kher used to come there, Naseer (Naseeruddin Shah) bhai used to teach at Modern School. I have watched all their plays and rehearsals for months.”

SRK further added that, “Physically, it taught me voice and body control and patience but besides that, it taught me the fact that rehearsals have to be so rehearsed that they look natural. A lot of my understanding of acting and being able to do what I am able to prolifically on stage or in front of the camera comes from nine years of solid theater training. And not just in acting, but in all aspects of it, be it makeup, lighting, being able to send junior artistes on stage, cueing, props, costumes. I always create an atmosphere of theatre on every film that I have worked with.”