Shah Rukh on Zero's debacle: I felt bad

Shah Rukh Khan

Beijing: Superstar Shah Rukh Khan says he felt bad when Zero failed, and he hasn't zeroed in on his next project till now. "Unfortunately, 'Zero' itself wasn't received too well back home in India. Maybe I made the wrong film, maybe I did not do the right storytelling so I am a little wary how it will be received here and I hope people here will like it," Shah Rukh, who has been receiving a lot of love here, said in an interview to China Global Television Network (CGTN).

Shah Rukh's Zero has been selected as the closing film of the Beijing International Film Festival 2019. The fest will close on April 20. The 2018 film features SRK as a person with dwarfism in a love triangle with a scientist with cerebral palsy (actress Anushka Sharma) and a famous actress (Katrina Kaif). The actors were lauded for their performances. Despite a strong buzz and an ensemble cast, the film turned out to be a damp squib at the box office.

Looking back, he said: "When it went wrong, I felt bad. That it got rejected by so many people... when you make a film like that for three years and it goes wrong... you get not depressed or anything but...I didn't want to see it. I am going to see it after three months. Maybe I will be able to figure out when I am away what went wrong with it."

What's his next project? "I haven't decided what I will do next. I thought I will take a few months off and try and work on what I want to do because it's very important for me to be most excited about it. I have worked for 30 years, I work 16 hours a day, so if it doesn't excite you in the morning, you should not wake up."

"At my stage, when I have worked in over 80 films, have done some satisfactory roles and have made a career out of what I do, I should be like I don't want to get up and go if it's not going to be an absolutely, stunning, scintillating and exciting day as an actor. So, right now I don't have anything that's stunning, scintillating and exciting, If I will have it, I will start working on it."

Shah Rukh was overwhelmed to get a "warm and happy welcome", as he tweeted "I am red all over". "When I walked out, suddenly they screamed... and for a moment I thought they were doing it for something else or someone else. Now I have gotten to know that they were from Xinjiang," he said in the interview.

The actor, who owns a production house, feels "Indians should have a homegrown superhero". "Like Iron Man or Batman. Maybe we could do a film about Indian and Chinese superheroes… it will be really nice," he said, going on to express his interest in acting in a Chinese movie only if he learnt Mandarin.

The actor feels cinema is a modern culture about telling stories and "storytelling and any art form is going to break barriers". "I know Chris Martin. But sometimes I don't understand his accent, but I like his music. These things enhance people-to-people culture. Language of art is beyond semantics and grammar."

Also Read: Shah Rukh Khan, Anupam Kher to play snakes and ladders, make sand castles in air

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