The Indian government and entertainment industry reacted furiously after Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan was Saturday was questioned for two hours at the Newark airport in the US over his surname and was freed only after Indian diplomats intervened.
Karan Johar’s twitter account page said, “shocked and upset…feeling terrible for Sharukhan”
Pritish Nandy Comments on Twitter commented “This is the problem with law enforcers worldwide. Now SRK racially profiled at Newark airport and quizzed for 2 hours. Truly obnoxious. Pretty much disgusting. I have stopped going to the US in recent months, just to avoid racial profiling.”
Priyanka Chopra on her twitter page also reacted angrily. Her psor said, “Shocking, disturbing n downright disgraceful. It’s such behaviour that fuels hatred n racism. SRK’s a world figure for Gods sake. GET REAL.”
Riteish Deshmukh taking a humorous though sarcastic spin on the event said on his page, ‘US Immigration- Please GOOGLE SRK.’
Vishal Dadlani, of the music director duo Vishal-Shekhar commented, “This is plain silly!! I mean, a quick internet search would tell them what they need to know about SRK!! Paranoia breeds stupidity, I guess!”
US Ambassador to India Timothy J. Roemer said, “We are trying to ascertain the facts of the case — to understand what took place.”
“Shah Rukh Khan, the actor and global icon, is a very welcome guest in the United States. Many Americans love his films,” he added.
Salman Khan said, “It is not such a big deal, when we go there we too have to go through the security check. There has been no attacks there since 9/11 because of their stringent security measures. I think it is a good thing (the security).”
Celebrities frisked at airports
In a breach of protocol, former President of India, A P J Abdul Kalam, was frisked by an American airline at the international airport here before boarding the aircraft in April 2009.
Bollywood actor Neil Nitin Mukesh too was detained at the US airport recently. In a similar fashion as airport authorities refused to believe that he was an Indian national because he is too fair.
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