In the early 2000s, Shah Rukh Khan had established himself as the top star of the country and certainly the Hindi film industry. He had been giving the year’s biggest hits for the past several years by that point and was, hence, willing to experiment with a few off-beat films as well. Between 2004 and 2010, the star did just that, lending his star power to a number of content-oriented films, ranging from Swades to Billu. Often times, he even spent money from his own pocket for the film.
The film where SRK spent Rs 2 crore on just sand
In 2005, Shah Rukh signed Amol Palekar’s Paheli, a film based on a folk tale from Rajasthan. The film also starred Rani Mukerji along with Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, and Amitabh Bachchan in special appearances. While much of the film was shot on location in Rajasthan, there were a few scenes shot in Mumbai. The film’s production designer Muneesh Sappel recently revealed in an interview that 400 trucks of sand was brought in to recreate the Thar desert in Mumbai for a scene. Shah Rukh, who produced the film under his banner Red Chilles Entertainment, reportedly spent Rs 2 crore on just the set. Sappel also revealed that the sequence in the desert involving Shah Rukh and Amitabh was actually shot on a helipad in Mumbai.
Paheli’s box office returns
Paheli was a critically-acclaimed film and was even India’s official entry for the Oscars the following year. But it was not a hit at the box office. The film earned just under Rs 2 crore at the domestic box office, where it was deemed an average grosser. The Amol Palekar film was a hit overseas, however, becoming a profitable venture for its makers in the end.
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