Shah Rukh Khan Loves Gangster Movies, Is a Fan of ‘Narcos’

Shah Rukh Khan on his love for gangster movies, and the reason for Raees’ postponement.

Shah Rukh Khan as Raees Alam and Wagner Moura as Pablo Escobar.

Last night, Shah Rukh Khan showed up at a preview theatre in Mumbai to meet with a few of us at a special screening of the trailer of his upcoming film Raees.

The trailer crackled to life with Shah Rukh’s heavy, gruffy and intense voice, tracing the life of Raees Alam - a bootlegger hunted by a persevering cop played by Nawazuddin Siddidqui. This big screen face-off between SRK and Nawaz has all the elements of a mass entertainer. Directed by Rahul Dholakia, Raees also features Mahira Khan, Atul Kulkarni and Mohammed Zeeshan in supporting roles.

Here are a few interesting points that Shah Rukh shared with me in a brief chat we had after the screening.

Why Raees Got Postponed

While there’s been a lot of talk as to why Raees got postponed from Eid 2016 to January 2017, Shah Rukh explained that his leg injury earlier this year threw a spanner in the works for the film’s shooting schedule. A good part of the film’s action sequences, which required SRK to be completely fit, remained to be shot and the wait for the actor’s leg to heal inevitably lead to the film’s release date being pushed.

SRK Loves Gangster Movies, Is a Fan of Narcos

Narcos tracks the life of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.

I quizzed Shah Rukh about his favourite gangster films, and the actor counted the Al Pacino-Sean Penn starrer Carlito’s Way and Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas among the ones that he loved. “I like to watch Goodfellas with my kids, Aryan and Suhana, but I don’t think they loved it as much, I think they find it too wordy,” he quipped.

But more recently, Shah Rukh has been binging on the popular Netflix show Narcos. The actor said he was watching the series based on the life of the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar while shooting for Imtiaz Ali’s new film in Prague. He also revealed that he was looking forward to meeting actor Wagner Moura, who plays Escobar in the show. Apparently Moura will be visiting India soon, and a visit to SRK’s house is on the agenda.

SRK Still Has to Shoot His Intro Scene For Raees

The shoot for Raees isn’t over yet. Shah Rukh revealed that his introduction shot in the film is yet to be shot. The entire team of Raees will be back in action on sets of the film to record SRK’s intro shot. Shah Rukh also loves the real and gritty feel that director Rahul Dholakia has brought to Raees and believes that Dholakia’s background as a documentary filmmaker has brought an essential element of rawness to Raees Alam’s story.