Dubai: He plays an elusive and deadly gangster in Don 2: The Chase Continues, but Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, during his visit to Gulf News Thursday, proved that he's anything but a bad guy.
Chatting to staff, signing autographs and reading Thursday's tabloid! dominated by Tom Cruise and Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol coverage ("It's good to see Anil [Kapoor] smiling on the cover") were how he spent an eventful newsroom visit that lasted 40 minutes.
Khan, who got his big break after playing a series of villainous roles in films such as Baazigar and Darr, was joined by Don co-star Priyanka Chopra plus director Farhan Akhtar and producer Ritesh Sidhwani.
"I ran out of expressions and decided to pull out all the things I did earlier," quipped Khan on what prompted him to take up an anti-hero role again in the Don sequel, releasing on December 22.
"It's one of those few roles where we celebrated making the film … He's a bad boy — he has no repressed childhood issues and we don't go into ‘he's a bad guy because…'."
Chopra, who plays a policewoman in the film, pitched in at this point. "There's no retribution or guilt, he's just bad. Don makes bad look really good," said Chopra, who was clad in an all-black Armani suit, painting a formidable picture.
"It was fun and I loved being jungli [wild]. When we were making the first Don, I didn't think there would be a sequel, but the way the people reacted to Don's character, it was unstoppable." Director Akhtar, who is not acting in the film, says his Christmas release has all the trappings of a blockbuster.
"When you watch a film, there's this obsession with the bad guy," he said.
"He's always more interesting than the hero who does good things."
Meanwhile Sidhwani, — producer of the thriller renowned for its slick action and suave villains — indicated that Don is a franchise in the making.
"The character is somebody you love," he said.
"People want to see what happens next with him so we made a sequel, so if people appreciate this, I'm sure you will see it. This time we have left a hint which I can't reveal."
