Shah Rukh Khan pretty shaken up after the failure of Zero, says Saare Jahan Se Achha writer

By Bollywood Reporter

on March 15, 2019

Writer Anjum Rajabali said that Shah Rukh Khan is pretty much upset and “shaken up” after the failure of his 2018 release Zero and that is the reason why he quit astronaut Rakesh Sharma's biopic Saare Jahan Se Achha, a news agency reports. After SRK opted out of the film, certain sections of the press reported that he was skeptical about signing up for a space film considering Zero failed to impress audiences.

Zero, directed by Aanand L Rai, cast SRK as a vertically-challenged character, who travels to Mars. Anjum, however, clarified rumours and said that SRK did not quit Saare Jahaan Se Acchha because he wasn’t keen on doing another space film but the reason is something else altogether.

[caption id="attachment_183361" align="aligncenter" width="647"] SRK in a still from Zero[/caption]

"If you're asking me, there was a problem with the script (of Zero). Himanshu (Sharma, the writer) is a very talented person but things go wrong sometimes. I don't think he said no to Saare Jahan Se Achcha because of the space (angle). I think he's also pretty shaken up, he was banking a lot on that," Anjum said at FICCI Frames, as per the news agency.

Zero, co-starring Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif, failed to impress fans as well as critics while Anjum said that there could be several reasons as to why the film didn’t perform as per expectations.

"This whole practice and culture of postmortem, of analysing what went wrong hasn't really caught on. What happens then is, there are knee-jerk reactions rather than responses even from the makers. Oh, it (the failure) could be because of the space and hence we put two into two together. Oh it's because the time wasn't right, nobody wants to see a star in a disabled person's role.' It could also well be that there was a problem with the DNA of the script,” Anjum added.

[caption id="attachment_204739" align="aligncenter" width="647"] SRK photographed in Mumbai[/caption]

Reports suggest that Vicky Kaushal has signed up for the role of Rakesh Sharma in Saare Jahaan Se Achcha after Shah Rukh Khan quit the film. No official confirmation has been made on such reports so far.