“Shah Rukh Khan doesn’t mind playing second fiddle to the product. In so many ads, he, the star, loses out; Nobody in the unit sleeps the night before Amitabh Bachchan’s shoot” – Prahlad Kakar

By Fenil Seta -

November 15, 2023 - 1:00 PM IST

One of the most famous ad filmmakers in India, Prahlad Kakar, recently released the book ‘Madman Adman: Unapologetically Prahlad’, which chronicles some of the important incidents of his life. The ad man has worked with several superstars of the industry and while promoting the book, he spoke to Mid-Day about the joys of working with Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan.

“Shah Rukh Khan doesn’t mind playing second fiddle to the product. In so many ads, he, the star, loses out; Nobody in the unit sleeps the night before Amitabh Bachchan’s shoot” – Prahlad Kakar

Prahlad Kakar praised SRK that he was large-hearted enough to play a defeated person in the ads in order to promote the brand. He said, “Shah Rukh is a delight. He doesn’t mind playing second fiddle to the product. In so many ads, he, the star, loses out. There’s one where he loses the girl to another actor and loses the cola bottle too. In another, he sneaks into a cricket team dressing room impersonating Sachin Tendulkar to steal a cola, only for the real Sachin to take the bottle and send him to bat in his place.”

As for Amitabh Bachchan, Prahlad Kakar praised his quest for punctuality. He revealed, “Nobody in the unit sleeps the night before Mr Bachchan’s shoot, because he’s always five minutes early. We’ve actually walked onto the set to see him sitting in a chair, in the middle of an empty set, reading a newspaper. It is terrifying.”

Prahlad Kakar was also honest enough to admit in the same interview that a soft drink brand deliberately chose to show Hrithik in a poor light. The ad featured Shah Rukh Khan and Tara Sharma and was slammed heavily. He explained, “Hrithik was actually in talks with two top rival cola brands, and ultimately chose one. And he did that at a time when the other was just about to announce they were in talks with him, which did not go down well. So, we showed Hrithik’s lookalike losing the girl to Shah Rukh Khan. We even made him look like a dork, with braces. It backfired on us. Hrithik was so popular that we received letters from consumers, criticizing us.”