Put it this way: the one you see in global hits was once just a kid with a plate of snacks in a theatre. Pankaj Kapur, an old-timer in the business, has put it on record that a 10-year-old SRK was the one putting in the hours at the NSD. It’s a nice confirmation of the kind of humility and drive we like to think of when we talk about him.
How a snack break became a story of grit
‘Those samosas were from no one else but Shah Rukh Khan. A 10-year-old at the time,’ Kapur told us on a podcast for Kindle Cast, thinking back to his days as an NSD student in the 70s and the young fellow who kept things moving during the interval.
He let on with a side note: ‘I believe his father or uncle was in charge of the canteen then.’ You wouldn’t have thought it, but some 20 years down the line, that same kid would be in a scene with him in Ram Jaane, the 1995 Rajiv Mehra film.
The NSD connection that shaped a star
It was more for Shah Rukh than just a stop at the canteen. His dad, Mir Taj Mohammed Khan, had a hand in the restaurant trade in Delhi with Khatir in Safdarjung, but he put in most of his time at the NSD mess.
After school, Shah Rukh would make his way to NSD and put in two hours a day until his sister Shehnaz Lalarukh Khan was ready to head back. He was there in the thick of it, with the rehearsals and the talk in the green room, around the very people he’d be acting with one day.
‘I was a cute enough child and I spent my whole childhood in their laps, or just running around with some of the best in the country,’ he put it in 2014. He was in the company of Pankaj Kapur, Raghubir Yadav, Raj Babbar, Nadira, Naseeruddin, Rohini Hattangadi, Anupam Kher and the rest.
Lessons picked up backstage
Raj Babbar, or ‘Babbar sher’ as he called him, was the one to put him on to Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda and Tughlaq. He can still recall Raghubir Yadav in the middle of a puja for Ganpati while they were at it. And with Barry John at the Theatre Action Group, he was in the mix with Manoj Bajpayee and others, learning his craft.
When his father passed in 1981, his mother, Lateef Fatima, saw the family business through till she was gone in 1990. That sort of thing leaves a mark; it’s a work ethic he doesn’t have to try hard to show these days.
From canteen kid to co-star, then box-office bulldozer
Having Kapur in Ram Jaane was a bit of a full circle for the fans. But he didn’t stop making waves. Just three years back, he put out Pathaan and Jawan, and they were hits here and abroad.
Even after 30 years of being a household name, what you hear about is how he hasn’t left his past behind. Kapur’s version of events is a good case in point.
Why this anecdote hits a nerve now
We’re used to hearing about the quick rise to the top, so the samosa tale is a welcome change of pace. It shows the long road, the theatre background and the people who were part of it.
There’s also the fact that he made his own way. No one in the industry put him on a pedestal. Seeing a kid in a canteen or a rehearsal hall gives you a better sense of the man.
In a nutshell, here is what you get from the story:
– A 10-year-old SRK with a samosa, per Pankaj Kapur
– His father and the Khatir, and the time he put in at NSD
– The two-hour wait for his sister Shehnaz to go home
– The pair of them in Ram Jaane, of all places
– The worldwide success of Pathaan and Jawan
No new footage or press release needed. It’s about a different way of looking at things. When his next film comes on, you can be sure some will be thinking of the boy in the canteen, and how a few small steps over the years can put you in front of a very large screen.
