Will Smith in Dubai: Oscar winner wants Shah Rukh Khan to cast him in a Bollywood film

Will Smith has a message for Bollywood’s biggest superstar: cast me.

Walking the red carpet in Dubai for the Middle East premiere of National Geographic’s Pole to Pole with Will Smith, the Hollywood icon revealed that he has been quietly building friendships in India’s film industry — and that a Shah Rukh Khan collaboration is firmly on his wish list.

“I was talking to Salman. We had things we were talking about. I was trying to get into something with Big B, you know,” Smith said with a grin.

“He told me I could be Big W, so we were cool — we were sharing the title.”

Nothing has quite locked in yet, he admitted, but the intent is real.

“There were a couple of things over the years… nothing panned out. Put me in something,” he said, laughing.

I caught up with Smith on the red carpet at The SEE Institute in The Sustainable City, where he was in full storyteller mode — relaxed, playful and unmistakably warm. At one point, he broke into laughter with a man who had managed him more than two decades ago, turning the high-profile premiere into something that felt more like a reunion among old friends than a tightly choreographed Hollywood event.

When asked what was scarier — acting or climbing the Himalayas — Smith didn’t miss a beat. “Listen, I will take acting over them,” he said, before explaining just how extreme filming Pole to Pole really was.

“There were things we did on this show that you would never be allowed to do on a movie set. We did things that usually the stunt man would have to do,” he said, describing days spent filming in high-risk environments.

One of the most striking moments came while trekking in the Himalayas.

“We walked from 12,000 to just over 14,000 [feet]. I was crawling. I couldn’t move at all. And we were with a 70-year-old woman who was easily walking up and down the mountain,” Smith recalled.

“Our bodies will do a whole lot more than we think they will if we acclimate them.” 

But the deepest lesson wasn’t physical.

“The major takeaway for me was how fear destroys your possibility to experience beauty,” he said.

“If you’re scared in a relationship, you can’t really experience the best of that person. If you’re scared in nature, you can’t take those extra couple of steps into where the most beautiful part of it is. Fear really destroys your ability to be happy.”

Dubai, too, sits at the heart of Smith’s personal journey. “I’ve been coming to Dubai for 30 years — since there were cranes on top of all the buildings. SkyDive Dubai was the first time I ever jumped out of an aeroplane — over the Palm. Dubai feels like a second home to me,” he said. 

It is also, he revealed, where this entire global adventure truly began.

Pole to Pole with Will Smith premieres on National Geographic UAE on January 13, National Geographic Abu Dhabi on January 14, and streams on Disney+ from January 14 — but if Shah Rukh Khan has anything to say about it, Smith’s next great adventure may just be on a Bollywood set.