Filmfare’s Editor-in-Chief Jitesh Pillaai marked Shah Rukh Khan’s birthday with a rare first-person account of a relationship he calls “twenty-five years of togetherness.” The editorial is less a career recap than a backstage view of how SRK worked, how he won a live audience, and how a star and a journalist stayed connected through sharp turns.
A first meeting that started as a clash
Pillaai places the beginning at Kamal Amrohi Studios, on a night shoot for Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, during Woh Toh Hai Albela with Naseeruddin Shah. Deewana had already made SRK the next big thing, and the reporter had been warned that he was arrogant. The introductions turned into what Pillaai calls “a war of words,” but within ten minutes the friction faded. That encounter, he writes, made SRK a rare constant in a business of shifting interests.
The bond grew across sets. Pillaai recalls hanging out on the shoots of Baazigar, Karan Arjun and Dil To Pagal Hai, along with photo sessions for Deewana and Anjaam. He also travelled with SRK to Filmfare events in Chennai and Hyderabad and to summits in Delhi, absorbing his takes on politics and showbiz. The early impression of arrogance, he suggests, was actually sharpness and perception closer up.
Backstage panic, showtime magic
The sharpest memory is the Filmfare Awards. Two days before one show, a worried SRK called Pillaai aside and said:
“This script is disastrous. We need to rethink.”
Then, on stage, he set the worry aside. Within five minutes of entering, Pillaai writes, the audience was “eating out of his hand.” The editorial describes a familiar contrast: a star who could throw a tantrum over a photographer or run a fever before showtime, then switch completely once the lights came on. Even when a politician was offended, or an actor felt upstaged, SRK seemed to know exactly where the line was.
What the piece shows
- SRK’s early “arrogant” image was, in this account, far more layered — sharp, demanding and loyal.
- His awards-show power was not just charm; he could make even a weak script work by reading the room.
- A star-journalist equation can survive cold silences, including one that lasted two years.
Why fans should read it
For Hindi cinema followers, the piece is a prompt to reconnect with the SRK of Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa and Baazigar — the outsider roles that built his stardom — and to revisit Woh Toh Hai Albela with fresh context. It also offers a candid look at film journalism itself. Pillaai admits the beat can be PR-driven and that some truth gets varnished. He remembers the time a headline calling SRK the “Shah of blah” caused mild offence, but SRK took it sportingly, at least in the earlier years.
The lessons he draws are practical: stay on the ball, focus on the target, and reinvent your tools. Good days do not mean the race is won, and bad days do not mean the career is over. In a media environment where journalists double as event managers, he argues, consistency matters more than any single victory or setback.
Source: Filmfare