Shah Rukh Khan and Mita Vashisht first worked together in Mani Kaul’s The Idiot (1992) and later reunited for Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se (1998). In an exclusive conversation with SCREEN, Mita talked about Shah Rukh’s charisma in his early years, his competitive nature and the warmth he retained even after achieving superstardom. She also recalled a frightening incident in which SRK’s quick reflexes saved her from falling off a steep ridge during the shoot of Dil Se.We worked together on Mani Kaul’s The Idiot in 1992. He wasn’t a star then, but you could see his charisma. It was so powerful that you could cut it with a knife, the aura of a superstar. And you could see his absolute desperation, passion to become a big star. Some of us know we have the talent, but we are not willing to die for it just to become big stars. We are happy doing the work. But for him, stardom, success, and winning were very important.Was he competitive even off camera?Yes. He hated losing at cards when we were shooting The Idiot. It was great fun. We had a wonderful time as a team. We shot in Goa and Bombay, with a long schedule in Goa. It was an amazing experience in so many ways. There was Shah Rukh, myself, Ayub Khan Din, and several others behind the camera who went on to become big names later. And then, of course, we all came to Bombay and went our separate ways.You worked again with Shah Rukh Khan in Dil Se.With Dil Se, it was different. By then, he was a very big star, but he was also very comfortable in his own skin. When I arrived in Dalhousie, or somewhere nearby, for my first shooting schedule, it was quite lovely because he welcomed me like an old friend. Initially, I had kept a little distance, not knowing how he would behave. Sometimes, when people become big stars, they start behaving differently. But he was very warm and affectionate, and he took really good care of me during the shoot of Dil Se, especially when we were filming together. Sadly, our best portion was removed from the film.Also Read – Inside Shah Rukh Khan’s gift of gab: Why the world misses the golden age of SRK interviewsCan you tell us more about that sequence?Story continues below this adWe had a six-minute fight sequence shot with a handheld camera, which was eventually removed from the film. It was between Shah Rukh and me, and it was a very powerful fight sequence. In fact, director Mani Ratnam had called me separately and explained how he wanted the sequence to be performed. I always wondered why he had explained it to me rather than to the fight director or Shah Rukh. When we began preparing for the sequence, which was to be shot near Humayun’s Tomb, action director Alan Amin suggested the usual approach: ‘You kick him, and then he’ll kick you.’ It was the typical kind of fight involving kicks, punches and all of that. But I told him, ‘No, Mani Ratnam sir has envisioned something very different. He wants this to be a fight between a lion and a tigress: a fight to the death, where one will kill the other. Neither will hold anything back or spare the other. Mani Ratnam also wanted the sequence to have a powerful physical undertone between the male and female characters.’How did you approach the physical demands of the sequence?I grew up with two brothers, and we often had intense physical fights. One of our favourite moves was to lock our legs around the other person’s stomach in a scissor-like grip, making it difficult for them to breathe. I would often do that with my younger brothers. I would clasp my knees around their chest or waist and tighten my grip, twisting my legs into a scissor-like hold. These were the kinds of things Shah Rukh and I discussed and eventually incorporated into the fight sequence. It was a very physical fight. And it went beautifully. Until…What happened next?As part of the fight, I was supposed to hit Shah Rukh on the head with a small stone as a last resort. But the stone slipped from my hand. Instead of my fingers cushioning the blow, it slipped through them and caused a small cut on his head. While everyone else was horrified and quite angry, Shah Rukh was so affectionate.Story continues below this adHe was also very protective of me throughout the fight. For instance, whenever he had to push me against a stone wall, he would instinctively place his palm behind my head, on the side away from the camera, to make sure I didn’t get hurt. I asked him, ‘Why are you doing this?’ And he replied, ‘Otherwise, when I push your face against the wall, you might hurt your head.’ That’s how protective and wonderful he was during the shoot of Dil Se.And then, of course, that AK-47 scene?Yes, I was carrying an AK-47 and making him cross blindfolded. While we were preparing for the shot, I was at the back, and Shah Rukh was ahead of me in the line. We were shooting in Dalhousie, and it was freezing cold. The shoes we had been given had plastic soles and we couldn’t properly feel the ground beneath our feet. Mani sir kept saying, ‘Go back, go back, go back.’ So I kept stepping backwards, very slowly, taking tiny steps. But at one point, I suddenly found myself looking up at the sky and feeling as though I was falling. I had actually reached the edge of a steep ridge and was about to fall.But Shah Rukh’s reflexes were extraordinary. In a split second, he grabbed the front of my jacket and pulled me back up. One moment, I was falling backwards with an AK-47, and the very next moment, his hand was grabbing my jacket and pulling me to safety.He actually saved my life that day. With the weight of the gun and the steep slope, I could have fallen all the way down, with nothing to stop me. I don’t know what might have happened, but I genuinely believe something terrible was prevented because of his fast reaction. That’s how alert and protective he was towards me. On the whole, I have always cared a great deal about Shah Rukh as a person.Story continues below this adAlso Read – ‘I want to be a star’: Shah Rukh Khan rejected ‘intellectual films’ early in his careerDid you keep in touch with Shah Rukh Khan after Dil Se?When he did Swades, I actually messaged him and said, ‘This is one of your finest performances in a long time.’ He was in Spain at the time. So he saw my message when he returned and replied. But we have never really been in touch because I think we probably belong to two entirely different worlds.