SRK hopes for friendlier ties, eager to take kids to Pakistan

New Delhi: Shahrukh Khan had great memories of visiting Peshawar with his father when he was a teenagaer. He showed eagerness to take his three children to visit his family’s hometown, and hopes ties between India and Pakistan become “friendlier” and “family-like”.

The Hindi film superstar spoke fondly of Peshawar when Pakistan’s former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar asked him about visiting her country, at India Today Group’s Agenda Aaj Tak Conclave here Wednesday.

“I’d love to! My family is from Peshawar and few of them still live there. I would love to come to Peshawar and bring my children over because my father took me when I was 15 or 16. I still have some of the greatest memories of the time I spent with my father in Peshawar, Karachi and Lahore. I want to take my kids there,” said Shahrukh.
He was was born in Delhi, but his late father, Taj Mohammad Khan, came from Peshawar, who was a freedom fighter.

Shahrukh hopes that the two countries forget their differences and join forces to have “the greatest of things possible for each other”.

“I hope with whatever issues and stresses we have… I hope we become friends, we become friendlier, we become like a family and one together,” he said, adding how he learnt the true essence “mehmaan-nawaazi” during his last visit to Pakistan.

“When I travel abroad, I notice it even more, because sitting in your nation you can’t make out. But when I go to London, Dubai or US, you don’t even get to know who is from where – there’s no cultural difference. I think people should forget (the past) and continue to be what we used to be,” he added.