Yash Chopra’s movie Darr was important for Shah Rukh Khan’s career. Released in 1993, it showed him in a negative role, different from his usual romantic hero roles. His portrayal of the obsessive lover, Rahul Mehra, was intense and memorable.
The line “I love you K-K-K-Kiran” became iconic and is still linked to his character in the film. This role helped establish Shah Rukh as a versatile actor capable of playing complex characters, significantly boosting his Bollywood career.
Juhi Chawla, who starred in Darr with Shah Rukh, revealed an interesting detail at a recent Gujarat Chamber of Commerce & Industry event. She said that the iconic dialogue where Shah Rukh stammers each time he says “Kiran” was inspired by Yash Chopra’s own struggle with speech.
Juhi said, “Maine yeh notice nahin kiya tha but Shah Rukh was observant. Yash ji thoda haklate the aur Shah Rukh ne bataya ki unhone woh wahan se pick kiya tha. He said, ‘I am going to use it in the film’ and wahan se unhone woh shuru kiya and thank God for that!”
Shah Rukh also shared how he perfected his stammer in Darr and revealed the quirky ideas he used to nail his villainous act. In the docuseries The Romantics on Netflix, he discussed becoming friendly with filmmaker Aditya Chopra while working on Darr. Shah Rukh mentioned he gave Aditya some inputs about his character Rahul Mehra. “I had a classmate who had a stammer.
And then we did some little study, some BBC documentary or something where they talked about that people’s minds become aware to one sound, and it’s like a sharp current,” he revealed.
“So, you can’t say the word. I told Yashji that I would like to use this aspect with the character. And then Adi suggested that because you become aware of a sound, let’s make him aware of the woman he loves the most, her name. So, I only stammer on the word Kiran. It was just for that one word because he’s so aware of her,” Shah Rukh said.
He added that he would have many “pseudo-intellectual conversations about characterisation” with Aditya. “I had some really fantastically stupid ideas. Like I remember once going to Adi and saying, ‘Can I make this phone call hanging upside down?’ Adi said ‘Yeah but… Dad won’t allow that.’ And sometimes he would come and tell me, ‘Listen I think dad is not going to take a close-up of this. But I think you did very well. So, you suggest it, if I do it, he’ll turn me down.’ So, we were like the filters who kind of helped each other with Yash Ji.”
Talking about Aditya, Shah Rukh shared, “To be honest, during Darr, Yash Chopra was the topmost director of the country. Although they were very loving, I felt a little ill at ease in this big set-up. So, the person who I became friendly with, who I could chat with, was Adi.”
