Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who was detained for as long as two hours early on Saturday at the Newark airport in the US, thanks to his surname ‘Khan’, has reacted strongly to the episode calling it ‘uncalled for’.
Speaking exclusively to Zee News about the incident that has left him deeply saddened, Shah Rukh said, “I am devoid; it hurts your self respect. I don’t want to make an ego issue out of it but I think I would avoid coming to this place now.”
Further elaborating on the episode, Shah Rukh said, “I was made to answer silly questions which had no relation with a legal and a general interrogation. They didn’t let me use my phone for an hour. I was travelling alone as the US consulate hadn’t allowed a visa to my bodyguard who coincidentally has the same name. As it is I am quite reluctant in coming to the US and I would make sure that I avoid it in the future.”
When asked what he had to say about Ambika Soni’s statement on the issue where she had called for frisking laws to be made stringent for foreigners in India, “the way they are in US”, the actor said in a lighter vein, “Yes, perhaps that way you can frisk and grill Angelina Jolie too.”
“This has happened with me before and that’s why it concerns me all the more. As it is I shy away from coming to the US because I don’t want to participate in their paranoia about religion and everything that the US has developed into over the years. I don’t want to say that it happened because I am a Muslim as it may lead to something else, but I think it had something to do with that only. We can only avoid this by not coming to the US,” added Shah Rukh.
Suggesting what can be done to avoid such embarrassments, the actor said, “I guess they need to modify the system. I am sure they can do much better than this, being the advanced country America is.”
The actor ended up by saying, “This particular episode makes me appreciate our independence one million times more. I need an incident like this to strengthen my faith in God further. I am looking forward to coming back to my country.”
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