Apart from being one of the most successful Indian actors, Shah Rukh Khan is also one of the leading film producers in India. Under his banner, Red Chillies, he has produced several blockbuster films and trending web series. Now, he is coming out with a new film, Kartavya, set to stream on Netflix. At the film’s trailer launch in Mumbai on Thursday, its lead star and SRK’s longtime friend Saif Ali Khan opened up about ‘producer SRK’.
Shah Rukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan are collaborating again for Kartavya.Saif Ali Khan on ‘producer’ Shah Rukh Khan
Shah Rukh and Saif have worked together in Nikkhil Advani’s iconic 2003 film, Kal Ho Naa Ho. Following this, they wowed audiences as co-hosts for the Filmfare Awards on three separate occasions. Now, Kartavya brings them back as collaborators as an actor-producer pair.
At the trailer launch, Saif opened up about his long history with Shah Rukh. “I’ve had a lovely and long association with Shah Rukh. He’s someone I look up to in many, many ways. I had a short meeting with him. He said there’s a lovely script and that he’d like me to hear it and do the film. I went through the process of listening to it and meeting the director (Pulkit). Once we finished the shoot and Shah Rukh watched it, he said it’s a lovely film. He’s very happy with it. That was pretty much the limit of my interaction with him,” he shared.
During the interaction with the media, Saif revealed that Shah Rukh is not a very hands-on producer and likes to give his directors ‘freedom to operate’. He said that Shah Rukh was never on the film’s sets despite being a creative person himself.
“I didn’t meet him on set because he’s one of the producers who believes that a director is free to operate and make the film that he wants to make. Sometimes, some kinds of presence can be overwhelming on sets, and he understands that. He gave us a lot of room to make the film that we wanted to make. So, that was his involvement. I felt like I was working for his production with his sensibilities. But for that, an everyday involvement wasn’t required,” Saif added.
All about Kartavya
Directed by Pulkit and produced by Gauri Khan under the banner of Red Chillies Entertainment, Kartavya is set to premiere on Netflix on May 15. The film also stars Rasika Dugal, Sanjay Mishra, Zakir Hussain, Manish Chaudhari and Saurabh Dwivedi in key roles.
Described as a character-driven crime drama, Kartavya explores themes of conscience, justice and consequence against a tense investigative backdrop.
(With ANI inputs)