I’m sitting in Locarno because of Yash Chopra: Shah Rukh Khan

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan on Sunday credited late filmmaker and frequent collaborator Yash Chopra for bringing him to the 77th Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, where he was honoured with the gala’s prestigious Pardo alla Carriera award-Locarno Tourism award.
A day after he became the Indian film personality to receive the award for his contribution to cinema, the 58-year-old sat down for a Q&A session with Giona A Nazzaro, the artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival. It was his late mother, Shah Rukh said, who took him to a cinema hall to watch a film for the first time. “In school, Hindi (language) was not my strongest point. My mom said, ‘I’ll take you to a movie hall to watch a film if you get 10 on 10 in Hindi dictation’. I think I copied one answer from a friend, but I did get 10 on 10, and then my mother took me to watch a film in a theatre for the first time,” he said.
Coincidentally, the film was Chopra’s 1973 thriller “Joshila”, added the actor.
“It was called ‘Joshila’, which was of the director with whom I did maximum number for my films later on in my life. So life is connected. Mr. Yash Chopra, it was his film. I’m sitting here in Locarno, Switzerland because of him, because of that movie I saw.”
Veteran filmmaker Chopra directed Shah Rukh in “Darr”, “Dil To Pagal Hai”, “Veer-Zaara”, and his swansong “Jab Tak Hai Jaan”.
Chopra shot his mega hit directorials “Chandni” and “Darr” in Switzerland. His son Aditya Chopra also filmed his directorial debut “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge”, starring Shah Rukh and Kajol, in the picturesque locales of the European country.
In 2016, a bronze statue of Chopra was installed by the Switzerland government as a tribute, near the Congress Centre in Interlaken, a popular tourist spot.
Shah Rukh, who was last seen in 2023’s “Dunki”, said after his parents died he wanted to leave New Delhi, his hometown, and come to Mumbai.
“I thought, I’ll get some roles. Then I thought I’d work in front of television, then I came into films, so I got little bits and pieces roles. And then one thing led to the other.
“I came to Mumbai for a year in 1990 and I said, ‘I’ll work for a year, earn Rs 1 lakh, buy myself a house, and then go back and become a scientist or a mass communication journalist. And, I hadn’t gone back yet,” he added.