Shah Rukh Khan on how he changed body language to perfect vertically challenged man act in Zero movie
Sonia Lulla (MID-DAY; December 21, 2018)

"What if I were born as a grasshopper in my next life? There's so much that I'd miss about this life," says Shah Rukh Khan, admitting that it's something he thinks about. Evidently trying to make a case for his latest offering, Zero — which hits screens today — he talks about how director Aanand L Rai wanted the film to celebrate life, despite limitations.

"The idea was to see if a vertically challenged person could make you feel shorter than him. So, [when prepping for the part] I didn't want to learn from the experience of a vertically challenged man, since it could be [peppered with] cynicism," he says.

Although one can count on Khan to pull off the part convincingly, courtesy his acting prowess, the superstar reveals bringing Bauua Singh to life required him to change his body language. "I had to take smaller strides. Also, if I moved at my regular pace, it would appear that I'm moving too fast, when matched with Bauua. For the dance sequences, like in the song with Salman [Khan], I had to dance slower to match his steps."

As is the risk attached to trying something novel, Khan admits they would notice certain discrepancies when his scenes were worked upon by the VFX team. "Sometimes, we'd do a scene and think we've got it right. But, when we'd see it on a smaller stature, it would invoke another emotion. So, we would be divided — should we change it, or let it be as disorganised as the character, and not re-shoot it. I believe this concept of character consistency is crap. You are who you are. Our character would do what we wanted it to. That is an arrogance I have in character-play. So, we retained those discrepancies."