Growing up in Wales, Indian-origin actress Banita Sandhu watched a lot of Indian movies, especially of actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan.
Despite being one of the most well-known actors in the world, Khan’s grounded nature is well documented and often spoken by his peers. In a recent interview with Connected to India, Banita, who was promoting her latest film, Detective Sherdil — starring singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh in the titular role — spoke about her experience with SRK, calling it a moment that felt like a dream.
Recalling an event where they performed together, she spoke about King Khan’s humility and chivalry despite his stardom.
Banita, who made her debut with the critically-acclaimed October (2018), said the interaction took place during rehearsals for a dance performance at a Filmfare show. She expressed her excitement about sharing the stage with Shah Rukh Khan and recalled how kind and approachable he was during practice.
“I think one thing everyone always takes away from Shah Rukh sir is how chivalrous he is. And I remember we, I think it was for a Filmfare show, we had to do a dance with him, which I was super excited about,” she said.
Even though she and the other dancers had some time to learn the steps before Shah Rukh arrived, Banita struggled with one particular move. While the choreographer was busy teaching multiple performers at once, it was Shah Rukh himself who noticed her difficulty and stepped in to help.
“His humility, considering he’s like the biggest superstar in the world. is just insane. Like, he came up to me and we were learning these dance steps, and we had had time before he came to learn them. And for some reason there was this one step I still wasn’t getting, and I was trying to ask the teacher and he was also teaching like four other actresses and then Shah Rukh just came up to me and was like ‘wait. what are you not getting’ and I was like this step and he was like he went through it with me which was so sweet,” she said.
Banita was also touched by the way Shah Rukh took interest in her work and career. During the interaction, he asked her what she was working on, and she shared that she was about to begin filming for an American television show.
“He asked what you are up to, are you shooting anything, and at that time I was about to go and shoot like an American TV show and he was like ‘that’s fantastic, congratulations’ and it all felt so genuine,” she added.
Reflecting on the moment, Banita said, “He really took an intro and I’m like I’m this random girl from Wales like what am I doing here dancing with Shah Rukh Khan, it was like one of those moments where I was like ‘whoa my life is crazy’ like ‘this is insane’ it felt like a dream.”
Detective Sherdil is currently streaming on ZEE5 Global. The film also stars, Boman Irani, Ratna Pathak Shah, Diana Penty, Chunky Panday, and Sumeet Vyas.
In a budding career thus far, Banita has already made a name for herself by featuring in movies like October, Sardar Udham, Adithya Varma, and international shows like Pandora.
