Highlights:
- Viveck Vaswani says SRK never faced hardship in Bollywood
- Claims the superstar lived in Cuffe Parade early on
- Feels “sad” about Aryan Khan’s The Ba**ds of Bollywood
- Says industry treated Shah Rukh with “kid gloves”
- Praises Emraan Hashmi and Bobby Deol’s performances
Shah Rukh Khan’s old friend Viveck Vaswani has come out with a sharp remark about the star’s early days. He said Shah Rukh did not really face the kind of struggle many talk about and was already living in Cuffe Parade when he began working in films. Speaking after watching Aryan Khan’s Netflix series The Ba**ds of Bollywood, Vaswani said he was hurt by how the show painted the film world as dark and cruel.
Viveck Vaswani says Shah Rukh Khan never struggled in Bollywood and questions Aryan Khan’s dark Netflix debut Instagram/ipsivootar
Why Viveck Vaswani’s comments on Shah Rukh Khan raised eyebrows
Viveck Vaswani, who once gave Shah Rukh a place to stay in Mumbai, said the show left him confused and a little emotional. Talking to Radio Nasha Official, he recalled the early 1990s when Shah Rukh arrived in the city. “When Shah Rukh came into the industry, the amount of love and respect that Aziz Mirza and Nirmala gave him, and that me and my mother gave him… everyone treated him with so much affection,” he said.
He questioned why Aryan’s series showed Bollywood as a corrupt space when Shah Rukh had only received warmth. “When did he come to the conclusion that Bollywood is a gutter and everyone in it is bad people?” Vaswani asked. “He was the one person treated with kid gloves as an outsider.”
Indian film star Shahrukh Khan and Gauri Khan attend the Bollywood Zee Cine Awards ceremony Getty Images
‘He was living in Cuffe Parade’ — Vaswani’s shocking claim
The producer made a direct statement that is now making headlines: “Not once did he struggle from the road. He was living in Cuffe Parade.” After Shah Rukh’s marriage to Gauri, Vaswani said director Aziz Mirza helped the couple find a place in Bandra.
He said the actor was never on his own or left to figure things out. “Everyone treated him so well, so warmly, without a single rift. Haroon treated him like a brother, Aziz’s son. Raheela treated him like a brother, Aziz’s daughter. I treated him like a brother,” he said.
The question that stayed with him after Aryan’s show
Watching Aryan Khan’s The Ba**ds of Bollywood, Vaswani said he could not help but wonder, “Did I do something wrong? Am I to blame?” He felt the show made Bollywood look like a hopeless place when, in his eyes, it had always supported newcomers like Shah Rukh.
“This is my industry. If India is my janam-bhoomi, then Bollywood is my karam-bhoomi. And it is Shah Rukh’s karam-bhoomi too,” he said, adding that it felt “a little sad” to see it shown that way.
What Vaswani thought of Aryan’s debut
Even so, Vaswani admitted he liked parts of Aryan’s series. “I watched the whole thing in one go,” he said. “I binge-watched it. The cameos were fabulous. Emraan Hashmi was absolutely superb. And I was pleasantly surprised by Bobby Deol’s performance,” he said. Shah Rukh’s attention is now on King, the action drama he is doing with director Siddharth Anand. It stars Suhana Khan, Deepika Padukone and Abhishek Bachchan, and should hit cinemas sometime in 2026.
