He was shaken up post Zero: Anjum Rajabali on SRK leaving Saare Jahan Se Achha

Actor Shah Rukh Khan is more careful than ever about what he signs next after his last film Zero tanked miserably. The actor was supposed to be in the biopic of Rakesh Sharma titled Saare Jahan Se Achha but he opted out.

Commenting on SRK’s decision to opt out of the film, writer Anjum Rajabali says, “I don’t think Shah Rukh Khan quit Saare Jahan Se Achha because it’s also about space, but, because Zero, his last outing, failed at the box office and thus he was shaken up and this could be the reason for him quitting this flick.”

Anjum was speaking at the recently held FICCI Frames interaction sessions. Adding more, he says, “Shah Rukh believed that Zero would be successful at the box office. Thus he was shaken.”

The writer further puts the onus on the writing of the film. “Undoubtedly, if the screenplay of a film is not written strongly, it fails to reach the hearts of the audiences. Irrespective of the exuberant performances of the actors and a good director, the film fails to fare well at the B.O.”

“There can be other reasons for Zero’s failure at the B.O — the audiences did not wish to witness any such individual like Shah Rukh played in Zero,” he adds.

Zero was written by Himanshu Sharma. Talking about the writer, he says, “Undoubtedly, Himanshu Sharma is a brilliant writer. But, sometimes somewhere something does go wrong and one cannot help it…” and adds,
“All in all, I don’t think Shah Rukh quit Saare Jahan Se Achha because it’s also related to space, which was a theme in Zero as well” he concludes.