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Shah Rukh Khan, who recently entered the billionaire’s list with a reported net worth of $1.4 billion (approximately Rs 12,490 crore), has often spoken with deep honesty about the personal tragedies that shaped his life. In a 2012 conversation with Tehelka TV, the actor opened up about the lasting impact of losing both his parents at a young age, a loss that profoundly affected both him and his sister, Shehnaz Lalarukh Khan.
Speaking about his sister’s struggle to cope with their parents’ passing, SRK shared how deeply she was affected, recalling a particularly difficult time during the filming of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ). “She didn’t cry, she didn’t speak, she just kept looking into space, and it just changed her world. Mashallah, now she’s better. She’s got some deficiencies. During the making of my film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge, she was again hospitalized, and they said she would not survive. I took her to Switzerland, got her treated there while I was shooting Tujhe Dekha To Ye Jaana Sanam.”
He added, “But she’s never really recovered from the loss of our father, the suddenness of him passing away. And then it got compounded because my mother also expired ten years later. So we are what, in Islam, is called yateem, fatherless and motherless. And when I see her, especially in that time period from my father’s death to my mother’s death, she was highly qualified, she’s done MA LLB, very intelligent, just like my parents wanted her to be. But she couldn’t face the reality of losing her parents.”
Speaking about his own emotional struggles following the loss of his parents and witnessing his sister’s health battles, Shah Rukh Khan shared: “And I somehow developed this sense of detachment, this false bravado, which I show in public, a sense of humor, and a lot of things that people think are flamboyant or very Bollywood-like, to cover up the sadness affecting my life and the fear of becoming like my sister. I love my sister, the way she is. She’s a much better person than I can ever be. I think she’s a child of God, very naïve and innocent.”
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He also reflected on how his work as an actor has often been a way to cope with his personal struggles. “My kids love her more than they love me and my wife, and I’m very glad she’s a part of our lives like this. But I don’t have the guts to be so simple, so hurt, so disturbed. So a part of me keeps on working around the clock, keeps on being happy in spite of the things that are said about me, makes a joke about the things that I do, but still keeps doing them because if I didn’t do that, I think I would be in the same state of potassium deficiency and depression. So, to avoid depression, I act.”
On the professional front, Shah Rukh Khan is currently filming his next project, King, directed by Siddharth Anand. The film also stars Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan, and Suhana Khan. It is widely believed that on the occasion of SRK’s 60th birthday next month, the first look of King will be officially unveiled.
