Zero celebrates incompleteness; the three main characters are physically, emotionally and mentally incomplete: Shah Rukh Khan

By Ankita Bhalla

on December 12, 2018

Shah Rukh Khan, in media promotions for his Christmas release Zero, revealed that the three main characters of the Aanand L Rai-directed film, Katrina Kaif, Anushka Sharma and himself, are all physically, emotionally and mentally incomplete. His own character, Bauua Singh, is vertically challenged. But SRK added that Zero celebrates “incompleteness” as “uniqueness” by showing the three main characters being deficient in some aspect or another.

The actor said that Zero was not an experimental film. “Its basis is that we spend our lives thinking, ‘I wish I could be happier’ and ‘I wish I could be like this or that’. And people keep telling us how we should be. What we don’t realize is that nobody (except, I joke, Katrina Kaif!) is mentally, physically or emotionally perfect. I think we should accept that so that we don’t waste time in trying to be someone else while life passes us by.”

Expounding on his belief, SRK added, “Life is just one, I believe that. And you just need to say ‘This is who I am, this is the best I can be’. And instead of thinking about our ‘incompleteness’, we should think of it as ‘uniqueness’. Ki agar main height mein chota hoon toh yeh unique baat hai mere liye. Yeh kami nahi hai aur main lamba toh nahi ho jaoonga. Ya main patla toh nahi ho jaunga, ya main gora toh nahi ho jaunga, zyada khush toh nahi ho jaunga, ya zyada padh likh nahi jaunga, whatever, ya mere maa-baap wapis nahi aa jayenge. So then you just say that let me enjoy this life that God has given.”

[caption id="attachment_67957" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Shah Rukh Khan as Bauua Singh in Zero[/caption]

Talking about the ‘incompleteness’ of Zero’s characters, Shah Rukh said, “We needed three kinds of incompleteness. There is a vertically challenged person, a mentally challenged person who is actually a genius but has cerebral palsy, and the most beautiful woman in the world that is emotionally challenged. Yehi teen cheezein hoti hain humans ki. Hum dimag se kam hote hain ya physique se kam hote ya phir kabhi-kabhi emotion se humko lagta hai kuch kami reh gaya. If we can accept these fast then we can go ahead.”

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="647"] Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif in Zero[/caption]

His character Bauua caught everyone’s fancy ever since Zero was announced but with the release of the trailer the deficiencies that Anushka and Katrina grapple with stand out too and the film looks more promising than ever. Shah Rukh added, “For the last one year we have been worried that this ‘incompleteness’ should not become the mainstay of the film but I think in the first 10-15 minutes you overcome that feeling and the ‘incompleteness’ does not become a gimmick. We want love, we want friendship, but we don’t want sympathy or empathy from anybody, for that reason we needed to have these three characters.”

[caption id="attachment_180273" align="aligncenter" width="647"] SRK as Bauaa in 'Zero'[/caption]