When Shah Rukh Khan was told during DDLJ shoot how his sister 'will not survive'

Shah Rukh Khan, in an old interview, talked about the void that his parents' death left in his and his sister Shehnaz Lalarukh Khan's lives.

Shah Rukh Khan, in an old heartbreaking interview, had opened up about the effect of his parents’ death on his and sister Shehnaz Lalarukh Khan’s lives. He has talked about how she never recovered from the loss of their father and how the death of their mother, a few years later, ‘compounded’ things.

Shah Rukh Khan once said that his sister could not face the reality of losing their parents.

In a video shared online by a fan club, Shah Rukh is seen talking about how Lalarukh was shell-shocked when their father died. Talking about her response to his mortal remains, Shah Rukh said, “She just looked, she didn't cry, she didn't say anything, she just fell and hit her head on the ground. For two years after that, she didn't cry, she didn't speak, she just kept looking into space. It just changed her world."

Though Lalarukh is much better now, she was battling for life when Shah Rukh was shooting for Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. “She got some deficiencies. During the making of my film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, she was again hospitalised and they said she will not survive. I took her to Switzerland, got her treated there while I was shooting Tujhe Dekha Toh Yeh Jaana Sanam. But she hasn’t ever recovered from the loss of her father, the suddenness of him passing away. And then, it got compounded because my mother also expired 10 years later,” he said.

Shah Rukh described Lalarukh as ‘highly qualified’ and ‘very intelligent’ but said that ‘she could not face the reality of losing her parents’. He, on the other hand, found a defense mechanism.

“I somehow developed this sense of detachment and false bravado, which I show in public, a sense of humour and a lot of things which people think is very flamboyant and very Bollywood-like to cover up the sadness affecting my life and me becoming like my sister,” he said.

Calling Lalarukh a ‘much better person than (he) can ever be’, Shah Rukh said that his children love her more than they love him and his wife, Gauri Khan. “I am very glad that she is a part of our lives like this. But I don't have the guts to be so simple, hurt and disturbed. So, a part of me keeps on working round-the-clock, keeps on being happy despite the things which are said about me or make a joke about things that I do but still keep doing them because if I do not, I think I would be in the same state of potassium deficiency and depression. So, to avoid depression, I act,” he said.