Shah Rukh Khan’s difficulties with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) may have pulled Aryan Khan into the type of controversy he’d want to avoid, but he’s no stranger to controversy.
His story dates back to 1992 when he was simply another fresh face in Mumbai with big dreams. Shah Rukh Khan got into a confrontation with a film journalist that year and was detained for making a ruckus in the office of the magazine where the object of his rage worked.
In an incident recounted by Anupama Chopra in her book on SRK, and which he later recalled in his interview with David Letterman, the then-nascent actor was enraged that the journalist had written about an intimate scene involving Deepa Sahi and him for Ketan Mehta’s critically acclaimed film ‘Maya Membsaab.’ Sahi is Mehta’s wife, by the way.
“I’m going to strip you down to your underwear and make you stand naked with me. Do you think that’s amusing?” In his Letterman interview, SRK recalled telling the journalist something and then going on to make a disturbance, which resulted in his incarceration. When Shah Rukh saw the condition of the Bandra police station’s prison, he made peace with both the journalist and the officers.
In the intervening years, SRK had the Samajwadi Party baying for his blood after he claimed (jokingly, he later said) at a public gathering that he could see ‘darindagi’ (evil intent) in the eyes of then-leading political operator Amar Singh.
Singh, who was the powerful general secretary of the Samajwadi Party at the time and was connected to Amitabh Bachchan and many other public people, did not find it amusing and promised to embarrass SRK at an appropriate time. The situation escalated, and Samajwadi Party workers gathered outside of SRK’s residence.
Suhana, his daughter, was so shocked by the situation that she began weeping, which enraged Shah Rukh to the point that he went to town with his feelings. “I am a Pathan and I am very, very, very protective of my family,” he claimed in an interview with an afternoon tabloid.
After Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Chennai Super Kings in the IPL final in 2012, an allegedly intoxicated SRK got into a brawl with a security officer in full front of the crowd at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium. In his defense, the celebrity claimed that the guard had prevented Suhana from joining the ground celebrations, but that he then worsened the situation by verbally insulting the security and Maharashtra Cricket Association officials (MCA)
