Mita Vashisht and Shah Rukh Khan worked together on Dil Se.
Mani Ratnam directed Dil Se.
Vashisht recalled Khan's warmth and generosity on Dil Se.
Reuniting with Shah Rukh Khan on Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se (1998), years after their initial collaboration on The Idiot, Mita Vashisht recalled his his generous, attentive nature on set. During a recent interview, the actor reflected on their time filming, highlighting a particularly terrifying moment when SRK intervened to save her life.
They had worked together on Mani Kaul's The Idiot in 1992. In a conversation with SCREEN, she recalled Shah Rukh Khan’s protective and caring demeanor on the Dil Se set. She drew attention to an unreleased action sequence where SRK repeatedly cupped the back of her head with his hand to cushion her from a stone wall as he shoved her. Even when a stray rock accidentally grazed his head and cut him during the shoot, his gracious, supportive attitude toward her never wavered.
During a freezing shoot in Dalhousie, Vashishth encountered a near-fatal accident while filming a scene where she had to march a blindfolded Shah Rukh Khan at gunpoint. Dressed in slick, plastic-soled shoes that offered zero grip on the slippery terrain, she began backing up slowly under Ratnam's repeated cues. Unaware that she had stepped off the ledge of a sharp precipice, she suddenly lost her balance, caught a glimpse of the open sky, and felt herself plunging backward into empty space.
The actress recounted, "But Shah Rukh’s reflexes were extraordinary. In a split second, he grabbed the front of my jacket and pulled me back up. One moment, I was falling backwards with an AK-47, and the very next moment, his hand was grabbing my jacket and pulling me to safety. He actually saved my life that day. With the weight of the gun and the steep slope, I could have fallen all the way down, with nothing to stop me. I don’t know what might have happened, but I genuinely believe something terrible was prevented because of his fast reaction."
She also talked how his bid to be a star was always prevalent. She insisted, "You could see his charisma. It was so powerful that you could cut it with a knife, the aura of a superstar. And you could see his absolute desperation, passion to become a big star. Some of us know we have the talent, but we are not willing to die for it just to become big stars. We are happy doing the work. But for him, stardom, success, and winning were very important."
By the time Dil Se happened, Khan had already become a star. But he "welcomed" her "like an old friend". She maintained that he remained warm and affectionate and caring.
