Mumbai: It was a wet and cloudy day in India’s financial capital on Thursday, but the company of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and siren Deepika Padukone instantly transported anyone in the vicinity to a sunny space. Their antics — specifically those of King Khan — were as entertaining as the crackling trailer of their Eid release Chennai Express. They sang, they joked and did everything in their power to hawk their August 8 action comedy.
“Don’t we look great on screen? Apart from all our lovers’ tiffs, imagine, I get to play the girl who Shah Rukh Khan fights for,” said Padukone with special emphasis on her hero’s name.
As soon as she said it, Khan chimed in: “I did that and look at what happened to my arm.”
The Bollywood superstar’s arm was in a sling as he recuperates from shoulder surgery that had little to do with Padukone’s comic shoves. Khan plays a 40-year-old Rahul, who finds love in a Tamilian beauty (Padukone). But love doesn’t come easy as he has to fight some nasty looking men down South. Directed by Rohit Shetty, who made hit comedies such as Bol Bachchan and the Golmaal series, the trailer of Chennai Express bears his trademarks: larger-than-life heroes, superb car explosions and some mean-looking goons.
“Rohit doesn’t know it yet, but he’s made a love story for the first time in his career,” said Khan, labelling Shetty one of the most talented directors he has worked under.
“For the first time in my career, the girls on the shooting sets found my director more good-looking than me. If we do another film, I will insist on him covering his face or something,” said Khan. The film, produced by UTV Motion Pictures and Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment, is close to his heart for another reason: It reunites him with his Om Shanti Om heroine Padukone.
“It was her first film in her Bollywood career and therefore I will always feel protective about her,” said Khan. Read the full interview in tabloid! soon.
