My Name Is Khan is turning out to be the most difficult movie that Karan Johar has directed or made. all the research work he did prior to the shoot and now all the shooting schedules have left him drained out of energy and he is now desperately looking for a break to recharge his batteries and rejuvenate his body and mind. However as much as he requires the break he deep down knows that it is not time yet and he is not going to get time off any time in the near future.

While researching for the movie Karan and Shibani Bhatija who is the writer of the movie visited a number of National Autistic Centres. During their visits, they met a couple who were gracious enough to share their story with them. Chris Aston suffered from Asperger’s Syndrome and his wife had written a book on how to deal with things when your other half suffers from this disease. The story of this couple forms the backbone of the movie.

Rizwan and Mandira, the couple in the movie have a similar kind of relationship. Shahrukh Khan plays the character of Rizwan who is an autistic. SRK did his own bit of research for his character. Now even when he is in his house with his kids he has the mindset of Rizwan. He has got under the skin of the character and his body language remains the same whether he is at home or on the sets.

Karan also clarified that in no way is Rizwan similar to eth character of Tom Hanks in the movie Forrest Gump. He said that there might be similarities with the charcter of Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man but even then, this character has a completely different story.