If Indian officials stopped, say, Tom Hanks at the New Delhi airport and grilled him for an hour or two because of national security concerns, Americans might find it ridiculous and outrageous. Which is just how Indians feel about the detention and questioning at Newark Airport of Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan, who was on his way to Chicago for an Indian Independence Day parade.
Searches on Khan—or SRK as he is familiarly known—increased 800% on Saturday, and the Buzz filled with articles about the contretemps. The story is front page news in India, sitting atop the Yahoo! India home page much of Sunday and meriting several above-the-fold articles and an online forum titled "Is the U.S. unduly harsh to those with Muslim names?" in The Times of India. Headlines from Indian news accounts include "My name is Khan? Too bad. SRK feels the heat of American paranoia," "I was harassed for no reason: SRK,"and "I don't feel like stepping into the US again, says King Khan." Meanwhile, the actor's fans protested what some characterize as humiliating treatment by burning a U.S. flag, and an Indian cabinet minister suggested subjecting visiting Americans to reciprocally inconvenient treatment.
For its part, US Customs says Khan was detained only 66 minutes, which lasted that long only because he and his luggage didn't arrive on the same flight. After initially expressing outrage, Khan—who recently finished shooting a film about, ironically, an Indian victim of racial profiling in the U.S.—said of the incident, "I think it's a procedure that needs to be followed, but an unfortunate procedure."
Searches on Khan—or SRK as he is familiarly known—increased 800% on Saturday, and the Buzz filled with articles about the contretemps. The story is front page news in India, sitting atop the Yahoo! India home page much of Sunday and meriting several above-the-fold articles and an online forum titled "Is the U.S. unduly harsh to those with Muslim names?" in The Times of India. Headlines from Indian news accounts include "My name is Khan? Too bad. SRK feels the heat of American paranoia," "I was harassed for no reason: SRK,"and "I don't feel like stepping into the US again, says King Khan." Meanwhile, the actor's fans protested what some characterize as humiliating treatment by burning a U.S. flag, and an Indian cabinet minister suggested subjecting visiting Americans to reciprocally inconvenient treatment.
For its part, US Customs says Khan was detained only 66 minutes, which lasted that long only because he and his luggage didn't arrive on the same flight. After initially expressing outrage, Khan—who recently finished shooting a film about, ironically, an Indian victim of racial profiling in the U.S.—said of the incident, "I think it's a procedure that needs to be followed, but an unfortunate procedure."
