Priyamani On Filming Chennai Express Song With Shah Rukh Khan: "Best 5 Nights Of My Life"

Shah Rukh Khan's upcoming film Jawan has been the talk of the town since the project was announced. The film, helmed by Atlee, features the superstar alongside Vijay Sethupathi, Nayanthara and Priyamani. Of them, Priyamani and SRK have worked together previously in Chennai Express, when the actors matched steps with each other in the song One, Two, Three, Four. Now, ahead of their next collaboration together, Priyamani has opened up about working with the superstar in the 2013 Rohit Shetty film. In an interview with Gulte.com, Priyamani shared that she was in Bengaluru when she received a call from Rohit Shetty's office. The actress said that since she thought it was a prank call, she got her manager to check its veracity. 

After Priyamani was told that she would be part of a song in the movie headlined by Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone, she only had one question for director Rohit Shetty. “ I said, ‘Sir, I have only one question. I hope I'm not like a background dancer you know because you have the biggest names Shah Rukh and Deepika'. He said, ‘No, the song is between only you both.” I said, ‘Where do I sign, please? Right now!'” Priyamani confessed. She also added that the team contacted her after they were impressed with her dance performance in a Kannada song alongside the late Puneet Rajkumar.

Speaking about working with Shah Rukh Khan, Priyamani said, “When they [first] said Shah Rukh Khan, I died. My lifelong dream of at least just breathing the same air as that man is going to come true.” 

Recalling the shoot of the song, Priyamani said, “Shah Rukh Khan was extremely sweet, a very down-to-earth person. I mean, he's the sweetest person alive. So, he came to me at one point because there were some particular steps which we had to repeat a couple of times. He said, ‘No, no darling, you go sit down, I will do it.' I said, ‘No, sir, I'm okay. I love dancing, so I don't mind dancing how many times do you want me to dance…' Those were the best five nights of my life.” She added, “We did not sit down and chat, but we played Kaun Banega Crorepati on his iPad. He gave me Rs 200 because my answers were right.”

Speaking about the superstar's work ethic, Priyamani added, “For us, once you finish work at two in the morning or six in the morning, you want to go back and sleep. But this man, after the shoot, after the pack up, he takes one of the assistants, they go to the sets or maybe his room and they practise.”

Priyamani – in a career spanning two decades – has worked in Hindi as well as several South Indian projects. She won the National Award for her role in the  2007 film Paruthiveeran.

Meanwhile, Shah Rukh Khan also has Dunki with Taapsee Pannu.