Shah Rukh Khan is a living legend today. The outsider, the path-breaker, the icon – Hindi cinema hasn’t seen a Badshah rule with such unparalleled love and success. Yet, early on in his life, Shah Rukh faced the biggest hiccup one could face – the sudden loss of his parents. The makers of Rani Mukerji’s Hichki are promoting the film uniquely by asking prominent personalities to share their untold weaknesses and how they eventually converted them into massive strengths. SRK reveals that harnessing the pain and grief of his loss into his passion for acting has been his way of overcoming this massive Hichki of his life. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Shah Rukh reveals, “My greatest Hichki moment is the death of my parents. I was 15 when my father passed away and 26 when my mother passed away. We were not financially well off, and I was studying for my Masters degree then. It was very sad for us. The empty house without my parents used to come to bite us (my sister and me). The loneliness, pain and sadness of the loss of both my parents, could have been overwhelming enough to take over my life wholly. I decided to overcome this Hichki moment by letting acting fill up my entire life.”
He adds, “I never quite let go of the pain, but I also used it to make me completely focus on my profession. People close to me will tell you that acting is my vent, my window of manifesting these overwhelming emotions. I always say this that one morning, when I wake up, I will realise that I have spent all these emotions and now have nothing more to give (as an actor). Otherwise, death is a hiccup from which there is no coming back. I realised that and therefore, overcame it by giving my work, my all. God might bring a hiccup to you in this life but he will also give you multiple ways to deal with it in this lifetime. I could find my family (the love and sense of belonging) amongst my friends and colleagues in the film industry again.”
Directed by Siddharth P Malhotra and produced by Maneesh Sharma, Hichki is set to touch the hearts of audiences when it releases on March 23.
