Having fond memories of visiting Peshawar as a teenager with his father, Shahrukh Khan harbours a hope to take his three children to visit his family’s hometown, and hopes ties between India and Pakistan become “friendlier” and “family-like“.
The Hindi film superstar spoke fondly of Peshawar when Pakistan’s former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar asked him about visiting her country, at India Today Group’s Agenda Aaj Tak Conclave here Wednesday.
I’d love to! My family is from Peshawar and few of them still live there. I would love to come to Peshawar and bring my children over because my father took me when I was 15 or 16. I still have some of the greatest memories of the time I spent with my father in Peshawar, Karachi and Lahore. I want to take my kids there.
The 47-year-old was born in Delhi, but his late father, Taj Mohammad Khan, came from Peshawar. He was a freedom fighter.
Shah Rukh, who is married to Punjabi girl Gauri, has three children – Aryan, Suhana and AbRam. AbRam is their baby through surrogacy.
Shah Rukh hopes that the two countries forget their differences and join forces to have “the greatest of things possible for each other“.
I hope with whatever issues and stresses we have… I hope we become friends, we become friendlier, we become like a family and one together
he said, adding how he learnt the true essence “mehmaan-nawaazi” during his last visit to Pakistan.
The actor believes the people of both nations harbour no ill-will for each other.
When I travel abroad, I notice it even more, because sitting in your nation you can’t make out. But when I go to London, Dubai or US, you don’t even get to know who is from where – there’s no cultural difference. I think people should forget (the past) and continue to be what we used to be.
