'Shocking', 'disgraceful' and 'madness' is how Bollywood today reacted to the detention of Indian cinema icon Shahrukh Khan at a US airport, apparently because of his surname.
His close friends Karan Johar, Farah Khan, Juhi Chawla and Aziz Mirza as well as industry veterans like Mahesh Bhatt and Raza Murad slammed the the ill-treatment meted out to the megastar.
"Shocked and upset... Feeling terrible for Shah Rukh...," Johar, a well-known film director, wrote on his twitter page while Juhi said the detention was "as absurd as Brad Pitt coming to India, being strip-searched, investigated and interrogated".
Choreographer-turned director Farah Khan, one of his closest friends, asked, "if he can be discriminated (on the basis of religion), who else is left. Shahrukh was on Time Magazine among its 50 Most Influential People. It is not only discrimination but lack of knowledge also."
Filmmaker Bhatt said, "it is shocking that Shahrukh Khan, who is by every definition a global icon, should be subjected to something like that".
Actress Priyanka Chopra, who had worked with Shahrukh in 'Don', termed the incident as "disgraceful". "
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Shocking, disturbing and downright disgraceful. Its such behaviour that fuels hatred and racism. SRK's a world figure for Gods sake. GET REAL!!," an angry Chopra wrote on her Twitter page.
Khan, one of the most prominent faces of Bollywood on the global stage, was on his way to attend an Independence Day celebration function in Chicago when he was detained and questioned for two hours at Nerwark Airport.
His detention is not the isolated case for Indian film industry. Malayalam superstar Mammootty too was detained at the JFK airport recently because of his middle name 'Ismail'.
Irrfan Khan, who faced a similar problem last year in US despite his global fame following the success of 'Slumdog Millionaire', said, "we should point out loopholes in their airport security system".
The other film personalities subjected to such treatment include 'New York' director Kabir Khan and Neil Nitin Mukesh. Kabir had alleged that he had to go through the security drill thrice despite being cleared the first time.
Kabir, who made a movie on the paranoia towards Asians in the post 9/11 US society, said it is a clear case of fear psychosis. "Shah Rukh just happens to be a superstar so we took notice of it. It is happening everyday.
"You just type his name on google and you get more hits than Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise combined. There is a clear element of arrogance in the entire episode," he said. Filmmaker Aziz Mirza, who directed Shahrukh first in TV serial 'Circus' in 1980s and hit movies like 'Yes Boss' and 'Chalte Chalte', felt that whatever the US authorities had done was "sheer madness"."Shah Rukh is a big star. Everyone knows him everywhere. The security officer might have done it out of his personal agenda and he might have done it in the garb of law," Mirza said.
Veteran actor Raza Murad said that the incident was a clear case of "racial discrimination".
"This is clearly a case of racial discrimination. They are going out of their way to humiliate Indians and if they come to know a passenger is Muslim, they try to discourage him from visiting the US," Murad said.
"Shah Rukh has shot several films in the US. If they had any doubt about his identity, they could have surfed the Internet where there are over five lakh images and references about him," Murad added.