Shah Rukh Khan On His Choice To Play James Bond: I Am Too Short, But Brown Enough To Play The Baddie

Shah Rukh Khan marked his presence at World Government Summit 2024 in Dubai on Wednesday as one of the speakers. At the event, he got candid about his journey to fame at the 11th edition of World Government Summit (WGS) at Madinat Jumeirah. Not just that, in his trademark witty style of speaking, Shah Rukh Khan mentioned how he would have loved to play the iconic British secret agent, James Bond, but cannot. For those caught unaware, celebs like Daniel Craig and Pierce Brosnan have played the fictional spy in the Bond film series. 

During a session, titled ‘The Making Of A Star: A Conversation With Shah Rukh Khan’, he joked about 'not being a legend'. When asked what his name was, "I am James Bond." To which the interviewer asked him if he would like to 'play Bond', to which Shah Rukh said, “I really wanted to, but I think I am too short... But I am brown enough to play the Bond baddie.”

The actor then went to speak about his journey in cinema spanning 33 years, as well as his stardom. Questioned why he didn’t cross over to Hollywood, the actor reportedly said, "I know many people from the American and the English film industries. But nobody has offered me good work and I wondered if I was spreading myself too thin. I was offered Slumdog Millionaire, but I felt that the role of the game show host was too mean,” as quoted in a report by Gulfnews.com.

For those of you who don’t know, the role of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ then went to Anil Kapoor in the 2008 film, which was directed by Danny Boyle. The film went on to win eight of the 10 awards at the 2009 Oscars.

Coming to his current work, Shah Rukh Khan was last in ‘Dunki’, which was released in December 2023. Before that, he starred in back-to-back action films – ‘Pathaan’ and ‘Jawan’. Both the films emerged to be two of the biggest box office hits of 2023.