Rajkumar Hirani Calls Shah Rukh Khan 'Brave' For Being Interested in Dunki: 'He Was Very Curious...'

Rajkumar Hirani’s most recent film, Dunki, starring Shah Rukh Khan, hit theaters a few days ago and has been in direct competition with Prabhas-starrer Salaar. The box office performances of these two movies are currently under scrutiny, but Hirani says that rather than focusing solely on the collections, attention should be given to the quality of the film’s content.

In an interview with ANI, Hirani discussed the influence of box office collection publicity on the audience and said that while negative information may initially deter people, he believes it’s temporary. “I feel it’s temporary and it is possible that people get influenced. A person can hear something negative and it is possible that he won’t go. It does have a little impact but in the longer run, that person will see it. If not here (theatre), then may be on OTT or satellite and then his love will stay with the film,” he said, adding, “I still feel that a barometer to judge a film should be… jo debate honi chahiye wo paiso se zyada film ki honi chahiye, film ke content se hone lagi hai. Thoda sa hum ye paiso se karne lage hai, ye tha nahi pehle, ye thoda sa badh gaya hai abhi. (The debate around a film should be more about its content than the money. These days we focus a little more on money.) Earlier, we used to go for a film innocently. We used to talk about the film but now the discussion around numbers has increased.”

In the film Dunki, Shah Rukh Khan takes on the lead role, assisting his friends in reaching London through an illicit route. This marks Shah Rukh’s third film of the year, following the success of the action-packed entertainers Pathaan and Jawan.

Rajkumar praised Shah Rukh Khan as a ‘brave’ actor who was interested in the film from the start. According to Rajkumar, Shah Rukh was curious and engaged in the story, wanting to try something different from his previous action films. “From the time I showed him the photograph of the plane, he was very curious. He is a brave actor and every actor wants to try something different. He did action films, so he wouldn’t want to keep doing that. He was very involved, very happy with the story,” he said.