DAMINI SHARMA
The North News
Chandigarh, February 21
It was a moment of sheer cinematic realism—one that even the actors involved did not expect. Nearly two decades later, Preity Zinta has revealed that her on-screen slap to Shah Rukh Khan in Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006) was not staged but, in fact, entirely real.
Zinta, speaking about the scene from Karan Johar’s emotional drama, disclosed that the unscripted intensity came at Khan’s insistence. “Oops! I did actually slap SRK in KANK… Not because I wanted to, but because he wanted it to be real,” she shared in a social media post, revisiting the behind-the-scenes moment after 19 years.
The actress, then still navigating the nuances of performance, admitted she struggled with the mechanics of a convincing but contact-free slap. “I was new to acting and didn’t understand how to time it so it looked real without making contact,” she explained. “I never made that mistake again—but maybe it was ‘filmy karma,’ because I ended up getting slapped on screen multiple times by trained actors, and that was not pretty!”
Released in 2006, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna was a box office success, becoming the highest-grossing Indian film internationally at the time. Zinta’s performance in the ensemble cast, alongside Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukerji, Abhishek Bachchan, and Amitabh Bachchan, was widely appreciated.
While Bollywood is no stranger to dramatic revelations, Zinta’s candid confession offers a glimpse into the unexpected realities behind the silver screen—where, sometimes, art imitates life a little too closely.
