'Unpleasant things happened'

'The last four-five years have been a bit of a ride for me and my family.'

Shah Rukh Khan has not given media interviews in the last five years.

He has hardly opened up about his personal life in the public domain since his son Aryan Khan got embroiled in a drug controversy.

But on Wednesday, January 10, 2024, night, he made an appearance at an awards show and opened up about the tough times his family went through in the last few years.

'The last four-five years have been a bit of a ride for me and my family. I'm sure for some of you also because of COVID. Most of my films flopped. Analysts started writing my death knells, some idiots did the same which actually is the same thing, analysts and idiots. Not something that I really bother about,' Shah Rukh Khan said after receiving a special award from CNNNews18.

'And then, at a personal level, a little bit of bothersome and unpleasant things also happened to say the least, which made me learn a lesson that 'Be quiet, be very quiet and work hard with dignity'.

'When you think everything is good, and still know it in your heart when everything is good, suddenly out of nowhere, whoom...life may come and hit you,' he added, presumably referring to Aryan's arrest in an alleged drug case in 2021.

'But this is a time you need to be the hopeful, happy, honest storyteller, and continue doing whatever you are doing and kind of think this is a nasty plot twist, this is not the story you are living. And 100 percent is not the story's end. Because somebody somewhere told me that life mein filmon ki tarah, anth mein, sad theek ho jaata hai. Aur agar theek na ho, toh anth nahi hai. Picture abhi baaki hai, mere dost. And I believe in him because I believe that goodness begets goodness,' SRK said.

After duds like Jab Harry Met Sejal and Zero, SRK made a grand comeback in 2023 and let his work silence his detractors.

He returned to the silver screen with Siddharth Anand's Pathaan in January 2023.

The film broke several records at the box office and is one of the highest-grossing films in the Indian film industry. His film also ended Bollywood's dry spell at the box office.

His next release was Atlee's Jawan in September 2023. The film once again saw SRK in an action avatar and collected over Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) at the worldwide box office. 

On December 21, he came up with his first-ever collaboration with Rajkumar Hirani. Dunki received mixed reviews from the audience and did decent business at box office.

At the event, Khan, expressed gratitude to the makers of Pathaan, Jawaan and Dunki.

'I want to thank Sid Anand for making Pathaan with Aditya Chopra, and Atlee for making the biggest hit in Hindi cinema in Jawan, and Raju Hirani and Abhijaat Joshi for making the most beautiful film for me, Dunki.

'Without them and the honest, hard work of all the other cast and crew members of these films, I wouldn't be standing here tonight. So I dedicate this award to all of them. I will dedicate it to them, but won't give it to them...at all,' he quipped.

'I would like to thank everyone here and people watching on television. Hordes of you this year came to watch my films, some of you may not have even liked them. But deep down, I know you came to support me and my family. So, I bow down to you.

'And thank you for bringing cheer to my family, my children, my loved ones and thank you for making me the star I am, yet again.'