Juhi Chawla was one actress, who looked good with every actor she was paired with onscreen. She had that gift like Kajol has, but strangely we don’t think Kajol ever looked good with her pairing with Ajay Devgan onscreen. Actually, no heroine looked good with Ajay Devgan onscreen. Anyways, that’s not the point here. This is about Juhi and to be honest, after Sridevi, Juhi is the one actress that comes to mind if we were to think of actresses with great comic timing. Offscreen, Juhi Chawla shared a great relationship with Shah Rukh Khan offscreen. The fact that Juhi and her husband joined SRK in financing KKR proves how close they are. Juhi has also publicly been upset at how Shah Rukh never kept in touch with her because he’s so busy. But the matter might just be something else since Shah Rukh pretty much dumped the film company they had together to start another one.

You might remember there was a time when Juhi acted with Shah Rukh a lot and most of their movies were produced by their own film production house, which was Dreamz Unlimited that eventually became Red Chillies Entertainment. Juhi’s brother, Sanjiv Chawla, was the CEO of Red Chilies until he had a massive stroke and fell into a coma in 2010. Despite that, he was still the CEO because everyone thought he would recover. But, he was replaced soon after by the CEO of KKR, Venky Mysore. Sanjiv, also known as Bobby, passed away in 2014 after being in a coma for 4 years. As soon as SRK found out about Juhi’s brother passing, he rushed to be by her side. We knew about this, but we had no idea that Juhi also lost her mother in a very tragic way. In a recent interview celebrating the 19th anniversary of ‘Duplicate’, Juhi gave an interview with Hindustan Times in which she recalled how Shah Rukh helped her when her mother passed away.

Speaking of how close Juhi and Shah Rukh are, we have noticed how his wife Gauri Khan has never been seen in the company of Juhi. It’s quite strange because Juhi and SRK are connected in so many ways and yet, Gauri has never been publicly seen with Juhi at events. She didn’t even attend the funeral of Juhi’s brother. Maybe she doesn’t approve of Juhi’s closeness to Shah Rukh. Juhi’s husband is fine with Shah Rukh, though. Back to this interview, Juhi mentions how Shah Rukh was the one, who convinced her to sign up for this film. To be honest, ‘Duplicate’ is one of the worst films of Shah Rukh’s career. Juhi was fine in it, Shah Rukh was horrible in both of the roles he played. Juhi talks about how she didn’t want to do the film, but then Shah Rukh gave a lecture to her on how she should do the film. Check out what Juhi has to say about all that below.

Juhi Chawla Interview

Juhi on how Shah Rukh convinced her to do ‘Duplicate’

I was in two minds because my character was not really doing anything substantial in the film. It was a sweet role but there was nothing to make me jump at . I remember I was working with Shah Rukh in Yes Boss (1997) at that time and after the shooting, we were at some bungalow in Mumbai when he sat me down and gave me a whole lecture for more than an hour on why I should be doing the film [Duplicate]. After sitting and listening to him for so long, I was like ‘okay, fine, maybe it’s not so bad and I am not looking at it correctly’, so that’s how I agreed to then do the film.

Juhi on how the ‘Duplicate’ shoot in Prague turned traumatic

I lost my mother while shooting for Duplicate. We had reached Prague and it was Karan’s [Johar] birthday the next day, so my mother and I bought a gift for him. Next morning, before I went for the shoot, she left for a walk and never came back. It was very traumatic because just a day before we had reached there and three days later, after she met with an accident, we were bringing her back in a coffin. It was devastating for me.

Juhi on how Shah Rukh was a huge support

He was the person who consoled me, as he had seen his parents pass away before that and knew the pain of losing a parent. So, he was trying to make me laugh and forget things. I went through the mourning period but then I realised that the only way to come around back to life was to go back to work and I did go back for Duplicate and Yes Boss—both were with Shah Rukh. Soon, I would look forward to the day because I knew I’d see him [SRK] there and somehow he’ll be fun and I’ll forget for that while what has happened and be okay with it as a bad dream. So in a way, he was special because he could just help me through that very difficult time of my life. So I have bitter sweet memories of this film.

Juhi on Shah Rukh is really helpful on the sets

He was a joy to work with. He would be very helpful. Even the director and producer would feel reassured that Shah Rukh is there, so things would go fine. He will work out the scenes, will help write and rehearse them.

Juhi on how Karan Johar helped around too

If ever we felt that a scene wasn’t written well, Karan would actually sit down and write it for us. He wasn’t really assisting in the film but he was always around on the sets. He’s very gifted with scenes, especially those involving high profile people, so there were quite a few that he helped us with.

By the way, if we have to pick one good film of Juhi, it would be ‘Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke’. Aamir Khan and 3 kids co-star with her in that film and it’s one of good films made that is for both adult and children.