Shah Rukh Khan recalls Devdas’ ‘lavish, opulent’ shoot

Shah Rukh Khan, who recently presented his 2002 film ‘Devdas’ at the 77th Locarno International Film Festival, called shooting for the Sanjay Leela Bhansali period drama ‘one of the best experiences of his life’, terming the movie ‘a modern-day masterpiece’. He also highlighted the challenges the makers faced while filming the magnum opus, including monetary crisis and producers backing out.

Shah Rukh said that when Bhansali decided to make ‘Devdas’, which had already been made 18 times earlier, the general perception of the industry was that it was ‘outdated’, while it was the ‘most expensive film being in India’ then. “It went through its own share of troubles. With money issues and producers vanishing, we had to complete the film in a few days. It went over time, over budget,” he shared.

Shooting a film like ‘Devdas’, which had massive sets and elaborate costumes, meant that the makers required huge resources. Recalling an incident when the set had to be lit up, SRK shared that they had 90 generators on the sets at one time. “We used to have 90 generator sets on the sets at one time to light up the area and there were no generators left in the city of Mumbai because it had to be lit up so much. Very opulent, lavish, rich and big and the costumes and the drama and everything of it,” he shared.