“The real stars of Jawan are my technicians who worked for four years on the film during the Covid”, says SRK

By Jyothi Venkatesh

After a phenomenal extended opening week, Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan crossed the Rs 700-crore mark worldwide yesterday. The Atlee-helmed actioner achieved the milestone in nine days, same as Shah Rukh’s previous hit Pathaan, also released this year. Jawan’s worldwide gross stood at Rs 735 crore on the ninth day. After raking in Rs 389 crore nett in the extended first week at the domestic box office, Jawan added another Rs 21 crore nett to its collection on the second Friday, taking the film’s total earnings so far to Rs 410 crore nett in India.

Jawan also features an ensemble supporting cast including Sanya Malhotra, Priyamani, Girija Oak, Sanjeeta Bhattacharya, Lehar Khan, Aaliyah Qureshi, Riddhi Dogra and Sunil Grover. Deepika Padukone has made a special appearance in the film. Interestingly, Pathaan had collected Rs 364 crores during the same period.

At the massive get-together that Red Chillies had hosted at the Yashraj Studios, where there were irritatingly three different security checks, Shah Rukh Khan was present along with Vijay Sethupathi, Deepika Padukone, Sunil Grover, Riddhi Dogra, Sanya Malhotra, Aaliyah Qureshi , Lehar Khan and music director Anirudh. SRK brought the studio down in his speech when he said that Jawan was shot almost for four years during the period of Covid when Atlee’s first child –his son Meer was also born and though mera to jawab nahin hai, the real stars of the film are the technicians.”

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Shahrukh Khan said that Nayantara could not be present because she was celebrating her mother’s birthday in Chennai. Praising SRK, Atlee who has earlier directed four films down South said that he was selfless to the extent of even asking him to cut out his scenes if he felt they were not necessary and show more of Vijay Sethupathi and the girls. ‘ With Jawan Shahrukh Khan and I align together and the film is my love letter to Shah Rukh.’

Shah Rukh declared that it was thanks to her large heart that Deepika had readily said yes to play his mother in the film. Deepika confessed that Shahrukh and Atlee had approached her when she was shooting for Project K and added that everyone knows that she will always be there for Shah Rukh. She added that both she and Shah Rukh have immense respect, love and trust for each other. Shah Rukh said that between him and Atlee, they fooled Deepika and made a full-fledged film with her though they had promised her only a special appearance in the film.

Shahrukh added that he has always been a great fan of films down South and he had even worked in one Tamil film- Hey Raam for Kamal Haasan though he has been working in Bollywood for the last 32 years, he still does not know the language that they spoke in Chennai.” Shah Rukh said that when Atlee told him that he had to work with eight girls in Jawan, he did not have the heart to say No to him. To get back on the sets after a gap of three years was very difficult. My kids Aryan and Suhana told me to make the youngest child Abram feel that I was a big star, because while he was growing up, he had not seen me as a big star as he had not seen my stardom.” SRK said that he had met Vijay Sethupathi for the first time at Nayantara’s wedding and added that he felt that he was lucky that she said yes to him.

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When the host asked Vijay Sethupathi about the kind of love he has received from Jawan, the actor said, “Don’t ask me. Sir has seen so much success. First of all, I didn’t expect so much love on the first day of release in Chennai, but a lot of people called me and told me they couldn’t get the tickets for the first day-first show for Jawan. People love him (SRK) so much.”

Vijay Sethupathi, who was for a change wearing pant and shirt and not dhoti as usual, at the Jawan success press conference ,said that as an actor on the sets he does not go by any set behaviour but always tries to crack the mind of his co-actors and added that he does not prepare on the sets and work but tries different ideas and sets out to approach his work as an actor. He said he had found that Shah Rukh Khan’s mind was sexy and SRK immediately declared that he was in love with Vijay Sethupathi and was ready to propose to him too after the event.

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Atlee confessed that he just cannot explain what his formula is as he does not have any formula but he loves Cinema. “When I decided to make Jawan, I wanted to show the hero in a way he has never been shown till date and SRK felt that he was class while I was mass and suggested that I show him as a bald guy. Atlee added that Shah Rukh was really a big backbone to him and he was surprised that SRK felt that it was his duty to make his director happy by providing him with whatever he wanted on the sets and pleasing him. Atlee added that he was very emotional when SRK had told him that he know how good a director Atlee was and was producing the film only to show the whole world who Atlee is and said that he was very grateful that he got a producer like SRK who was ready to green light his film which had cost him over 300 crores of rupees to make.

SRK wound up by stating that though he was selfish earlier, he is no longer selfish and promised that he will work harder now onwards.