Is a hyena in Lakadbaggha named after Shah Rukh Khan? Anshuman Jha reveals

A few years ago, actor Anshuman Jha acted in the critically-acclaimed film Yeh Hai Bakrapur, in which the name of the bakra, or pet goat, was Shah Rukh. Being a die heart SRK fan, the question of naming an animal after a Bollywood superstar came up in Lakadbaggha.

During an interactive session with the media as part of the trailer launch of the film, Anshuman was reminded of his earlier film and if a hyena is named after any actor in Lakadbaggha.

Talking about that film and naming a goat in it as Shah Rukh, with a smile on his face and in total embarrassment, Anshuman said, "Well, the decision to name a pet Shah Rukh was not my decision. Yeh Hai Bakrapur was directed by the National Award-winning filmmaker Janaki Vishwanathan and as an actor, when I go to a set of a film, I only follow the director and the script -- that is my job! I learned from my acting teacher Barry John that an actor should just be on time, know their lines and do the best they can with the given script. So, that was that."

Speaking about Lakadbaggha, Anshuman added, "Since Lakadbaggha is not a pet, we had no reason to name him anything!"

Revealing a fun fact, he added, "On August 13, 2021, a striped hyena was found in Corbett National Park after five years; for five years, striped hyenas were not visible in the wild and were seen only in zoos. Lakadbaggha is about a kidnapped hyena, so we had no reason to name it."

Directed by Victor Banerjee and produced under the First Ray Films banner, Lakadbaggha also stars Ridhi Dogra, Milind Soman and Kharaj Mukherjee, among others. It releases in theatres on January 13.