'The Romantics': Here's How Shah Rukh Khan & Aditya Chopra Became Friends

'The Romantics' gives us an insight into how Aditya Chopra helped Shah Rukh Khan become the 'King of Romance'.

The Romantics, Netflix's new docuseries that is a tribute to the late filmmaker Yash Chopra, premiered on the OTT platform on Valentine's Day, 14th February. In addition to the legacy of the filmmaker, the limited-episode series also gives us an insight into how Shah Rukh Khan became a romantic hero and how Aditya Chopra had a significant role in it.

Here's how the Pathaan actor and the producer became friends:

1. When SRK Met Aditya Chopra

Shah Rukh's first Yash Chopra film was Darr, in which he was offered the role of the antagonist. Apparently, when no one else was willing to play the quintessential villain in the film, SRK was ready to be the bad guy.

Eventually, Darr, which also starred Juhi Chawla and Sunny Deol in lead roles, turned out to be a pathbreaker for SRK.

SRK and Aditya first met on the sets of Darr, when Aditya was assisting his father in the film's direction. At the time, SRK wasn't aware that Aditya was Chopra's son.

"Actually, I didn't know Adi (Aditya) was his (Chopra's) son. When I met him first time, was when I met Mr Yash Chopra. There was a gentleman, young boy standing next to Yashji. And I thought, 'Maybe he's his chief assistant director."

Shah Rukh Khan, The Romantics

2. How SRK & Aditya Chopra Became Friends

It was also during the shooting of Darr that SRK and Aditya became friends. They would often engage in intellectual conversations and help each other with improvisations during the film's shoot.

Talking about Aditya, SRK shared, "To be honest, during Darr, Mr Yash Chopra was the topmost director of the country. Although they were very loving, I felt a little ill at ease in this big set-up. So, the person who I became friendly with, who I could chat with, was Adi."

Interestingly, the man behind SRK's popular "K-K-K-Kiran" stammer was also Aditya. SRK, who would often exchange inputs with Aditya, told him about his classmate, who used to stammer.

"I had a classmate who had a stammer and then we did some little study, some BBC documentary where they talked about that people's minds become aware to one sound, and it's like a sharp current. So, you can't say the word because you become aware of a sound. Let's make him aware of the woman he loves the most, her name. So, I only stammer on the word Kiran. It was just for that one word because he's so aware of her."

Shah Rukh khan

"I had some really fantastically stupid ideas, like I remember once going to Adi and saying, can I make this phone call hanging upside down? Adi said 'Dad won't allow that.' Sometimes he would come and tell me that listen I think dad is not going to take a close up of this. I think you did very well. So, you suggest, if I do it, he'll turn me down. So, we were like the filters who kind of help each other with Yash Ji," SRK further added.

3. When Aditya Saw a Romantic Hero in SRK

SRK was recently seen in the role of a full-fledged action hero in Aditya's latest production, Pathaan. However, Bollywood's King of Romance had always wanted to be an action hero.

Talking about the same in The Romantics, Aditya shared, "So, I was working with Shah Rukh in Darr. And I actually realised that Shah Rukh is a really soft, and really nice guy. But he pretends to be this macho and he likes action. But he's actually not that. I was looking for a very unpredictable romantic hero."

In The Romantics, the star also revealed that he and Aditya would often engage in conversations about action films, and Aditya had also proposed a concept to him for one that he loved.

Before Aditya approached SRK for Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, the actor shared, "Adi used to tell me, ‘Your eyes have something that cannot be just wasted on action’."

4. How Aditya Chopra Convinced SRK for DDLJ

When the script of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) was proposed to SRK, he was very reluctant to do the role. Although he did not say no to the film, he did not want to play the role of a romantic hero.

"Adi came with his assistant director, Karan Johar, and they narrated Dilwale Dulhania to me, and I was shocked. I did not know what to say. And they narrated this really sweet, namby-pamby film to me, about this guy who loves... doesn’t even run away with the girl! I was like, 'What is this? What is this film they are telling me?'" 

However, Aditya refused to give up on him. In the docuseries, he revealed that for one or two months, he kept running into SRK on his various film sets.

He recalled an incident from the 1995 film Trimurti’s set. "There was this very old, fragile lady. I would say she was about 80. She told Shah Rukh, ‘Beta, tu bahut accha hai. Itna accha kaam karta hai. Mujhe bohot pasand hai. Par tu har film mein marta hai aur har film mein khoon hota hai. Mujhe accha nahin lagta’." (Son, you are good. You do good work, and I love it. But you die in all your films, and there is a lot of bloodshed. I don't like that.)

"15 minutes later, I walked up to Shah Rukh and told him, ‘I feel you are hesitant to say no. You might choose not to do this which is completely fine. But I would just advise you not to shut your doors on never doing a love story. Because in this country, a superstar will only be that person who will be every mother’s son, every sister’s brother, and every college girl’s fantasy’.”

Aditya Chopra, The Romantics

As they say, the rest is history. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was signed by Shah Rukh Khan. Today, the film holds the record for the longest-running film in the history of Indian cinema. The all-time blockbuster is still running in theatres today, even after 27 years since its release.

And as we all know, Shah Rukh Khan is, was, and will always be remembered as Bollywood's 'King of Romance'.