Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan has talked about how he perfected his stammer in the 1993 film Darr and revealed how he used to bounce off quirky ideas to nail his villainous act in the Yash Chopra blockbuster. In the docuseries The Romantics streaming on Netflix, Shah Rukh spoke about becoming friendly with filmmaker Aditya Chopra while working on the 1993 film Darr, directed and produced by his father Yash Chopra. The actor said he gave Aditya Chopra some inputs about his character Rahul Mehra. "I had a classmate who had a stammer. And then we did some little study, some BBC documentary or something where they talked about that people's minds become aware to one sound, and it's like a sharp current."
"So, you can't say the word. I told Yashji (Yash Chopra) that I would like ot use this aspect with the character. And then Adi (Aditya Chopra) suggested that because you become aware of a sound, let's make him aware of the woman he loves the most, her name. So, I only stammer on the word Kiran. It was just for that one word, because he's so aware of her," Shah Rukh said.
He added that he would have many “pseudo-intellectual conversations about characterisation” with Aditya Chopra. "I had some really fantastically stupid ideas. Like I remember once going to Adi and saying, ‘Can I make this phone call hanging upside down? Adi said 'Yeah but… Dad won't allow that.' And sometimes he would come and tell me. ‘Listen I think dad is not going to take a close-up of this. But I think you did very well. So, you suggest, if I do it, he'll turn me down. So, we were like the filters who kind of help each other with Yash Ji."
The Romantics has been directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Smriti Mundhra, who returned to Netflix after the phenomenal success of Indian Matchmaking and the Never Have I Ever franchise.