Zero: New Video Shows How Shah Rukh Khan’s Vertically Challenged Character Was Created Via VFX

Shah Rukh Khan’s ambitious new film Zero has received mixed reactions, with a majority panning it. The film’s box office showing too has suffered with fans not taking to Shah Rukh’s latest fable-styled love story.

However, the film’s VFX and the performances by Shah Rukh and Katrina Kaif have come in for praise. Now, the new video has surfaced that shows how the impossible task of showing a dwarf was pulled off. Even the hardest to please sceptics couldn’t deny that the film’s visual effects indeed looked seamless.

Speaking about the making of the film, Shah Rukh, who is also the producer of the film, said, “We realised that this film couldn’t be shot in a normal way.”

The film’s pre-visualisation was the key to its success. He revealed how every shot had to be taken five times; that it was a work of passion.

He explained further how team of VFX specialists had to visualize every scene with the aspect that one character was one and half feet shorter than the rest. Aiding them in the process was a young man from Delhi named Aashish (possibly a dwarf himself). However, he was not used as a body double.

Lego-like sets were created for the film. Instead of the floor, movable boxes were placed so that Shah Rukh’s character could be placed at a lower height. As his body had to be shrunk too, they had to take separate shots for that as well.

Zero tells the story of a dwarf who journeys from Meerut to America and in the process, his path crosses with that of the reigning superstar called Babita Kumari, played by Katrina Kaif. His inspiration is Aafia Yusufzai Bhinder, played by Anushka Sharma, a brilliant scientist with cerebral palsy.