Mumbai, Dec 18 : Years ago, his portrayal of negative characters in films like ‘Baazigar', ‘Darr' and ‘Anjaam', had brought acclaim for actor Shahrukh Khan, who is now back again with such a character in Farhan Akhtar's ‘Don 2: the King is Back', which is set for a release.
It started with Abbas-Mustan thriller ‘Baazigar', in which, Shahrukh Khan played a negative role. Yash Chopra's ‘Darr' (1993), a psychological thriller, was a story of an obsessive lover, played by Shahrukh to get his love- Juhi Chawla, who is already happily married to Sunny Deol. Then, in ‘Anjaam' he played a negative role opposite Madhuri Dixit in the female lead.
Though Shahrukh had a few films to his credit before the release of ‘Baazigar'and ‘Darr', these two films took his career to new heights and established him as an acclaimed actor in Bollywood.
Ask him if the negative characters are liked and memorable, Shahrukh says, “Evil or devil, black or little grey characters, be it in books, stories, films or television have some sort of attraction.
I started from theatre and there was nothing like a hero character. There was a central character or an important character. I have played good and bad guy on stage. For me, when I joined films, I got a chance to play these characters.”
“Now, after 15-20 years, I got a chance to play a negative character in ‘Don'. There is a justification for the character to be negative...to be bad. I enjoy doing it. I am in no way glorifying negative characters. These are stories and characters. But as an actor, it is one of the greatest highs to play a villain. It is a different kind of a high for an actor,” he said.
Shahrukh will be seen in ‘Don 2', an upcoming action-thriller film directed by Farhan Akhtar. It is a sequel to the 2006 film, ‘Don: The Chase Begins Again', which itself was a remake of the 1978 film ‘Don'. Don 2' also starring Priyanka Chopra, Om Puri, Lara Dutta and Kunal Kapoor, releases on December 23.
Ask him if he is bothered about the negative impact on the audience with portrayal of such roles, Shahrukh says, “I do consider that many a times.
I think an actor will always have this thought. For us, this is our job, but the results of our regular job can be negative or positive, or both. Having worked for so many years, I know there are kids and youngsters and all others out there watching our movies, enjoying it.”
“But when I see the documentaries on poverty, things happening on the streets of India, terrorism, attacks in Iraq or things that are happening around the world in terms of drugs syndicate, I feel, in real world, we have enough badness for the people to be get impressed by it.
We try to bring focus on these things through our films or characters in a controlled environment of our films. Films and characters should not be taken to heart and home and try to follow,” he said.
“Most of the films that we do in India are of goodness, hope and aspirations. Sometimes, we do make edgy films and on the commercial parameters ‘Don' is a bit edgy movie. And I would like to clarify that we are a responsible people and we too, are always worried that they don't take bad things, films and characters that we do to entertain them.Don't take away bad things,” he added.
