Shah Rukh Khan, who is gearing up for his much-awaited film, King, has become the first Indian to receive the Pardo alla Carriera Ascona-Locarno Tourism award at the Locarno Film Festival. Shah Rukh recently attended the film festival in Switzerland where his 2002 film, Devdas, was screened for the audience.

Ahead of the screening, SRK announced that he bought the rights to Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s directorial long ago and called working on the film “one of the best experiences of his life”. During the masterclass at the Locarno Film Festival, Shah Rukh Khan revealed that his production company, Red Chillies Entertainment has acquired the rights to Devdas before its screening at the event.

“It turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life. So much so that we as a production company bought the rights of this film back, and I’m very, very proud that it belongs to our company now,” SRK said.

Shah Rukh reflected on the legacy of Devdas while sharing insights about how the 2002 epic movie was released. SRK shared that when Bhansali wanted to direct the film, it felt like an “outdated” concept as 18 versions of the film already existed and there was immense pressure on the makers to bring a fresh version to the screen.

The superstar continued that India was witnessing a cultural shift towards a liberalized mindset and added that the audience wished to watch light-hearted films including college musicals back then.

The Devdas actor called it the “most expensive film” of India which went through financial issues and its producers had vanished back then.

Speaking about his experience while filming Devdas, SRK shared that he had a great time on the film set as he paid tribute to his mother who admired the 2002 classic. The superstar revealed that he was advised not to sign Bhansali’s film as according to them wasn’t “his zone”, however, he acted in it to fulfill an unfinished dream and for his mother.

Apart from Shah Rukh, Devdas also starred Aishwarya Rai, Madhuri Dixit, Jackie Shroff, and many more. The film was based on the 1917 novel of the same name by famous author Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay.