Mumbai:

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who has been feted with the National Award for his performance in Atlee’s blockbuster film Jawan, had once faked an epileptic fit in Grade 11 to bunk a class with his friends.

During an appearance on the popular 2002 talk show Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai, hosted by the late Farooq Shaikh, Shah Rukh — who grew up in the Rajendra Nagar neighbourhood of New Delhi — appeared alongside his best friends from school.

One of his friends recalled while talking to Shaikh:

“What happened was there was a new teacher in class. This new teacher had come so we thought we wanted to actually bunk class… So, Shah Rukh actually went in and he started doing an epileptic fit, which was brilliant. This was in class 11.”

Another friend said he was stunned to see SRK actually “frothing from the mouth.”

The friend added that he didn’t “know how he did that and four of us actually had to lift him on our shoulders and take him out of the class — and we never came back for the next three hours.”

He continued, “Vikas then went for the teacher’s shoe and said we need your shoe. He walked out with one shoe and the four of us bunked the class.”

The superstar, who studied at St. Columba’s School and received the institution’s highest honour — The Sword of Honour — first smiled and then admitted, “We used to do a lot of these things.”

On September 23, Shah Rukh Khan was honoured with a National Award at the 71st National Film Awards for Best Actor for his work in Atlee’s action entertainer Jawan.

Released in 2023, Jawan stars Shah Rukh Khan in a dual role as a lookalike father and son, alongside Nayanthara and Vijay Sethupathi. In the film, Azad, the jailer of a women’s prison, becomes a vigilante who recruits inmates to expose corruption in India.

The 71st National Film Awards, held in Delhi, were organised by the National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC). The awards feature a structured jury system, with regional committees feeding into a central committee chaired by filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker for the Feature Film category.