Actor Shah Rukh Khan once shared that he never visited Kashmir because his late father had asked him not to go there without him.
An old video of SRK making this heartfelt confession has resurfaced online. In an earlier appearance on Amitabh Bachchan’s game show Kaun Banega Crorepati, Khan revealed the reason he had never visited Kashmir. In the video, the actor could be heard saying, “My father’s mother was Kashmiri. My father told me that in life, make sure you visit Istanbul, Rome, and Kashmir at least once, whether I’m here or not. However, you can visit the other two without me, but don’t go to Kashmir without me.”
Shah Rukh added, “So he died very early. I have been all over the world lekin main Kashmir kabhi nahi gaya. Bohot saare mauke bhi mile, doston ne bohot bulaya, ghar wale chutti pe bhi gaye, par main Kashmir kabhi nahi gaya. Kyunki mere father ne kaha tha ki Kashmir mere bina mat dekhna, Kashmir main dikhaaunga,” (I had many opportunities to visit Kashmir—my friends invited me, and even my family went on a holiday there. However, I never went because my father told me not to go without him, as he wanted to take me himself.”)
SRK’s father, Mir Taj Mohammed Khan, passed away from cancer when he was just a teenager, and his mother, Lateef Fatima Khan, died a decade later, when he was only 24.
Shah Rukh Khan made his first-ever visit to Kashmir in 2012, during the shoot of his film “Jab Tak Hai Jaan.” Before landing in Kashmir, Khan had tweeted, “Dark clouds…wet roads…too early for even life to feel alive…but I am on way to make movies. A cigarette and coffee as co travellers.”
Reports suggest that Shah Rukh Khan also filmed scenes for his movie “Dunki” in Kashmir.