It has been 15 years since Shimit Amin directorial sports drama Chak De! India hit the big screen. In contrast to its comparatively low budget of Rs 20 crore, the film went on to earn a sizable sum at the box office (Rs 108 crore worldwide revenue). Along with monetary success, it received rave reviews for its writing, directing, and leading roles. In fact, Shah Rukh Khan’s performance in Chak De! India is still regarded as one of his best to date.
However, did you know that before to Chak De’s breakthrough, Shah Rukh had his own doubts? Speaking at the University of Edinburgh, the actor said that post its first screening, he thought Chak De! India was the ‘worst film’ the team had made in their lives.
“We had some of the brightest minds making the film like Aditya Chopra, Jaideep Sahni, Shimit Amin. We had young girls who learnt how to play hockey. We had Yash Chopra backing it. But when I saw the film at its first screening, we all looked at it and felt it was the worst film we had ever made in our lives. The girls didn’t know this because for them seeing themselves on screen for the first time was a big thing. So they were irritatingly screaming and dancing while the four us were sitting there and crying. We had reached that stage of failure where you start telling people, listen we did what we wanted to. This is what we set out to make and success and failure is transient and we will come back. It was really really sad,” the actor had said at the time.
The fact that Salman Khan, another superstar, was first given the opportunity to star in the sports drama. When Salman was asked this question during the Sultan premiere, the superstar responded in a humorous way. “Chak De! India was offered to me but I left it because even Shah Rukh Khan should be a part of a few great films,” the actor said lightly.
For the uninitiated, in an even earlier interview just post the release of the movie, Salman, while speaking with CNN IBN had said that he had problems with the climax of Chak De! India. “I had an issue with the climax of the film. Adi (producer Aditya Chopra) had told me that ‘I will make it the biggest hit and you don’t know what you are missing out on.’ I was fortunate Partner did well. Chak De! India has done really well, Shah Rukh Khan has done really well. I was wrong and he (Aditya Chopra) has made it the same way he narrated it to me, and I was like how can this work dude, it can’t work,” Salman said with a small laugh.
