Aanand L Rai admits he failed to harness Shah Rukh Khan’s stardom in Zero
Director Aanand L Rai addressed the commercial underperformance of his 2018 film ‘Zero’, citing challenges in integrating Shah Rukh Khan’s established personality with the written character.
Nearly seven years after his ambitious 2018 film Zero Despite underperforming commercially, director Aanand L Rai addressed its failure at the box office. The filmmaker took full responsibility, stating that he did not succeed in effectively blending Shah Rukh Khan’s superstar persona with the role written for him.
During a recent interview with Galatta Plus, the director – whose 2018 film starred Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif alongside Shah Rukh Khan – made the candid confession. Aanand L Rai admitted that his mistake in Zero was not effectively integrating the superstar’s personality into the character’s role.
He said, “The problem with Zero was that, that man… that superstar came to me very lovingly and I was just me, I never understood that this is not an actor director who is going to make the story. There was a superstar attached, there was his image, which I had to understand and bring in the film. I was working with an actor, a big actor. I realized much later that there is an image that I have to take care of.”
Anand further added, “When you say that my films are without star burden, somewhere I agree that perhaps I am unable to incorporate that stardom in my characters. Sometimes, people want to see their stars in a character, but there has to be a star element too, which I was unable to do. I was floating, those bearings were not there, they were gone.”
in love with you director He said that his collaboration with Shah Rukh Khan was a “rewarding experience”. Reflecting on the mistake, he suggested, “One of us should have stopped and said, ‘Hello, this is not just an actor director, there’s a star too.’ The director lamented that since the actor “never brought it up to me, I never understood it and somewhere along the way I lost that thing.”
Shahrukh’s Zero also featured Anushka Sharma, Katrina Kaif, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Abhay Deol, R Madhavan and others in lead roles. The film was supported by Anand and Gauri Khan.
Anand’s recent releases in love with you Dhanush and Kriti Sanon were in the lead roles. Prakash Raj, Priyanshu Painyuli, Tota Roy Chowdhury, Jaya Bhattacharya, Vineet Kumar Singh and others in lead roles.
The romantic-drama released on November 28, 2025.
