Mumbai: Shah Rukh Khan, known as the King Khan of Bollywood, has always been known for his eloquence, but the way he uses his tact to escape threats from gangsters shows that he maintains his balance even in difficult situations . Film journalist Anupama Chopra in her book ‘King of Bollywood: Shah Rukh Khan and the Seductive World of Indian Cinema’ has referred to several such sentences when Shah Rukh Khan faced gangster threats. Shahrukh Khan always used English as a weapon in dealing with gangsters.
Shahrukh Khan’s first appearance from the world of gangsters was during Mahesh Bhatt’s film ‘Duplicate’. Before that, in January 1997, Gulshan Kumar, the owner of T-Series, was shot dead in broad daylight.
In the same month, former Maharashtra DGP Rakesh Maria called Mahesh Bhatt to inform that gangster Abu Salem had given the responsibility of killing Shahrukh Khan to a sharp shooter. Abu Salem was upset that Shahrukh Khan had not signed the film of a producer close to him.
Mumbai Police gave bodyguard Mohan Bhise to Shahrukh Khan. Shah Rukh was told not to go out much and was asked to change his car and route every day.
Shahrukh Khan said that in those days it was such a condition that when one of his fans came to take his autograph at the wedding of a famous cricketer and took out his pen, he thought he was taking out a weapon and pushed his wife Gauri back. .
Shahrukh says that he didn’t know why he thought he wouldn’t get shot and was worried about his wife and kids.
One day when Shah Rukh was coming from Khandala after the shooting of ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’, he got a call from Abu Salem. Salem abused him in Hindi and Shahrukh spoke in English calmly the whole time.
Salem said that he is upset with Shah Rukh because he didn’t do a film with a Muslim producer. Salem said that Shahrukh should support the people of his religion.
Shah Rukh then said that he has worked with Mansoor Khan, Abbas Mustan, Aziz Mirza and Mahesh Bhatt’s mother was also a Muslim. Shahrukh says he told Abu Salem that “when I don’t tell you which one to shoot, you don’t even tell me which film to do.” Salem did not threaten Shahrukh after this.
But Abu Salem called Shahrukh several times and said every time that he knew where he was and where was his security.
Mahesh Bhatt says that at that time Shahrukh was going through harsh reality in life but on screen he was playing the character of comedy.
After Abu Salem, Chhota Rajan’s gang also started calling Shahrukh, but soon his calls stopped. After this, a small gangster named Gonga Bhai also followed Shahrukh for a year. He wants Shahrukh to play his character in a film based on his life, but here too, Shahrukh silences him by speaking English.
According to Anupama Chopra, after this, Chhota Shakeel called Shahrukh. He was upset with the lyrics of the song Chaiyya Chaiyya from the movie ‘Dil Se’. He used to say that its words are against Islam, but the actor turned that too in his words.
Chopra says Shah Rukh being a Muslim, being humble and having a huge fan base has been good for him. Even the gangster’s family members were fans of Shahrukh. He was told by Abu Salem that his mother and wife are fans of Shahrukh.
