Shah Rukh Khan is regarded as one of the finest heroes in Bollywood. His proficiency in romance films is unparalleled. However, his co-stars occasionally questioned whether his role was truly the villain. Parmeet Sethi, who portrayed the antagonist in Diwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, and Manoj Bajpayee, who played the antagonist in Veer Zaara, have similar perspectives.
Parmeet Sethi calls SRK the real villain of DDLJ
Parmeet Sethi told Pinkvilla, “DDLJ mein Kujit ne kuch galat nahi kiya. Raj, Shah Rukh`s character, aakar meri mangetar ko le karta hai. Mein to nahi gaya tha. In the film, Parmeet played the character Kuljit, who was supposed to marry Simran, played by Kajol. But she falls in love with Shah Rukh Khan`s character Raj, resulting in one of Bollywood`s most popular love stories.
Even Manoj Bajpayee had a similar observation
Moving on to another Pinkvilla interview, Manoj Bajpayee, who played the antagonist in Veer Zaara, stated, “Sagai Ho Chuki hai, Uski biwi kisi aur se chooch lada rahi hai. To mere liye, Shah Rukh Usmein Villain tha, aap jo hai nafrat mujhse lar rahe ho.” He was referring to Preity Zinta`s character, Zaara, who fell in love with Veer (Shah Rukh Khan) despite being engaged.
During the same interview, he stated, “When I am given a role, I think from the character’s perspective. Then I will be able to make it believable. That’s how my thought process was while approaching the role. For me, Shah Rukh was the villain (laughs). For Raza, Shah Rukh was a bad man. Since Raza was powerful, he could trap them. If he were not powerful, he would commit suicide somewhere, right? Or he would spend the rest of his life as Devdas. A man does whatever he can, in his own limits (laughs).”
According to both actors, from the characters` perspectives, Shah Rukh`s role may be interpreted as the one causing trouble—sneaking into a girl`s life and interrupting her engagement.
Parmeet has time and again shared how he was grateful for the character Kuljeet and narrated the fun anecdote on bagging the role after asking Aditya Chopra to give him a chance to audition for it.
