20 years of Chalte Chalte: I said yes to the film because it had Shah Rukh Khan, says Meghna Malik

Meghna Malik might have had a cameo in Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukerji starrer Chalte Chalte, but the film will always hold a special place in her heart because it was the beginning of her acting career when she got the role.

“It had been just a year-and-a-half my life as an actor had started in Mumbai. It’s fascinating when you’re an outsider and you transition from theatre into films. Chalte Chalte was my second film, and then it had Shah Rukh Khan. During that time, all the girls were crazy about his romantic charisma,” recounts Malik as the film clocks 20 years of his release.

Expressing gratitude, the actor considers herself lucky to have got the chance to share screen space with SRK. “I was quite amazed by Mr. Khan’s humility and gentleness he had. I was fresh out of the theatre circle, and I could see him rehearsing like a theatre actor while practising his scenes with me. He never made us feel like we were around a superstar. It was such an amazing and comforting experience,” says the actor, adding that, she instantly said yes to the film “because it had Shah Rukh Khan. He was such a sensation in our college. Also, there was Rani, it was directed by Aziz Mirza, so it was a dream project.”

Going down memory lane, Malik recalls a particular scene and reveals that it was actually shot at the terrace of Khan’s bungalow, Mannat.

“As someone so fresh in the film industry, I was excited that I was getting to go inside the house of a superstar. I still remember the interiors of the house... there was a spiral staircase that had SRK’s pictures along the wall. It was lovely that he invited us to the house and we got to shoot there,” she shares.

There was another memorable scene in Chalte Chalte that Malik recalls shooting for, however, it was not included in the final cut of the film. She tells us, “It was a scene with Rani — a ramp walk, and where we were shooting the whole night until 4am. But, it was lated edited out and we were like, ‘Arrey, humne poori raat woh scene shoot kiya tha, woh toh hai hi nahi!’ I think I even tripped in that scene because I had not slept the whole night.”

Talking about how being a part of such a successful project helped her career trajectory, Malik says she was not only “enamored by the experience” of working with “beautiful people and superstars”, but she also “learnt a lot while shooting for that film”.