British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran recently expressed his admiration for Bollywood, specifically after discovering Shah Rukh Khan’s 2007 film Om Shanti Om. In a discussion with Zane Lowe, he compared watching the film to the experience of seeing Star Wars for the first time, describing it as grand, imaginative, and unique. Sheeran remarked, “It’s a wealth of discovery of movies, and someone going like, ‘Oh, have you seen this movie?’ Have you seen ‘Om Shanti Om’?
It’s like a really big Shah Rukh Khan movie, and it has amazing songs and dances in it.” He elaborated, “This is a weird analogy, but it is almost like introducing Star Wars to someone for the first time, and they just go like, ‘What is this?’ There are superstars in the same country singing in different languages.” Additionally, Ed reflected on his month-long visit to India, where he filmed the music video Sapphire with Arijit Singh. He mentioned that with every few hundred miles he traveled, he felt as if he was discovering a new world, complete with diverse cultures, languages, music, food, and fashion.
Sheeran described his collaboration on Sapphire as one of the “most amazing days in [his] musical career,” highlighting the significant influence and magic of Indian cinema.