Brahmāstra: Part One - Shiva, which officially launched Bollywood's first original cinematic universe, has been one of September's biggest box office successes. The movie has already become one of the most successful Indian films of all-time, and should soon become the highest-grossing Indian film of 2022.
While it wasn't a well-kept secret, it's been confirmed that global icon Shah Rukh Khan makes an extended cameo appearance in the film's opening sequence as a scientist named Mohan Bhargav - a nod to his character from Swades - who wields the power of the Vanarāstra.
We won't get into any more details about his role in the film, but we did get a chance to speak with Bollywood megastars Ranbir Kapoor (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil; Sanju) and Alia Bhatt (Dear Zindagi; RRR) to get some insight into what it's actually like to share the screen with the one-and-only King Khan. However, since we spoke prior to the release of the Ayan Mukerji-directed film, they understandably had to avoid actually confirming Khan's involvement in the film, but both were still kind enough to elaborate on their past experience working with the living legend.
Kapoor remained as coy as possible, while reflecting on the cameo SRK shot for his 2016 film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.
"I don't know about Brahmastra, but I've had the good fortune and privilege to do one small scene with him in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, she's done a full film with him. He's everything that we love about Shah Rukh Khan. You know, he's magnetic, he's passionate, he's the king, you know, and, there's no two ways about it." He adds with a big grin, "But I'm not sure if he really has a part in Brahmastra yet, that's something which Ayan has not disclosed to us."
Bhatt, who's worked with SRK on multiple occasions, having co-starred with him on Dear Zindagi and with him producing her latest film Darlings, also spoke on her experience and expressed interest in hopefully getting a chance to work with him again sooner than later.
"Listen, I love him. He's one of my favorite people in the world, just the personality that he is, the magic he has in his eyes. The power/gentle nature that he has sort of existing in the same moment, I think, genuinely one-of-a-kind, and when I have spent whatever time I've spent with him shooting our film Dear Zindagi, I learned so much from him as an actor in just that much amount of time, and I really feel so blessed that I got that time to spend with him because I feel like that added so much more of a layer to me as a person and as an actor.
And yeah, in fact, I say this to him all the time, that we just produced a movie together, Darlings, so now we need to act again, you know, in a movie together, so I can get some more of Shah Rukh time."
On a related note, the incredible reception to SRK's cameo has resulted in Mukerji revealing that he's already discussed the possibility of developing a spin-off about Khan's Mohan Bhargav character and how he initially acquired the power of the Vanarāstra.
Check out the full video interview below and please remember to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE!
BRAHMĀSTRA- the Trilogy, is a 3-part film franchise and the beginning of India’s first original universe – the Astraverse. It is a new original cinematic universe inspired by deeply rooted concepts and tales in Indian mythology but set in the modern world, with epic storytelling of fantasy, adventure, good vs evil, love and hope; all told using cutting edge technology and never-seen-before visual spectacles. Releasing In cinemas on *09.09.2022* in 5 Indian languages – Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.