Bollywood star held in U.S. airport, fans outraged

[Kadie]

Bollywood star held in U.S. airport, fans outraged
2 hrs 40 mins ago

MUMBAI (Reuters) – Indian Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan said he felt angry and humiliated after he was detained and questioned at a U.S. airport, sparking an uproar in India among his fans.

Khan, 43, one of India's best known actors, was enroute to Chicago for a parade to mark the Indian independence day on Saturday when he was pulled aside at Newark airport Friday, he said.

"I was really hassled perhaps because of my name being Khan. These guys just wouldn't let me through," he said in a text message to reporters in India.

After a couple of hours' interrogation, he was allowed to make a call, he said, and he got in touch with the Indian consulate who vouched for him and secured his release.

"Absolutely uncalled for, I think. I felt angry and humiliated," said Khan, who had just finished a month-long shoot in the United States for his upcoming film "My Name is Khan," which is about a Muslim man's experience with racial profiling.

more...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090815/en_nm/us_india_usa_khan

[Ian David]

1. I blame Chief TSA Inspector Kirk.

KHAN!!!!

[Ikonoklast]

4. Thread Over.

Kirk FTW.

[CreekDog]

6. game over, you win

:rofl:

[Deja Q]

15. I'm so glad somebody else went that route before I had...

:rofl:

[conspirator]

18. Actually since I saw Star Trek II, Khan became a cool name to me nt

[Deja Q]

20. Or "Space Seed", the 1966 Trek story that first featured Khan.

[Ellipsis]

22. For your quick witted respone...

You win this:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLgMKIXV_jU

[Kadie]

24. Ha!

:rofl:

[tj2001]

2. Not defending TSA, but perhaps this guy exhibited "movie star behavior"?

Speaking from experience, it's always best for EVERYONE to keep a low profile and just answer their questions and move on.
Do not challenge them in any way. Do not irritate them. Do not insult them. It's not worth it.

For the record, I think >50% of cops are assholes.

[Gormy Cuss]

7. Challenging or irritating them should not be grounds for being held up by TSA.

That's flat out an abuse of authority. As long as people believe that they need to go along like little sheep we'll see more and more violations of privacy in this country. Is that what we want?

[pscot]

10. Grounds! We don't got no grounds!

We don'tneed no stinking grounds!

[BlooInBloo]

12. It is if you're brown.

[malaise]

8. Sorry he travels all over the world and has never

been treated for this way. He is not merely a movie star - he's associated with a cricket team as well.

Did you know that
"Last month U.S-based carrier Continental Airlines apologized to former Indian president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for frisking him at New Delhi airport".

Yeh that's the former President of India in his own country.

Let's face facts - there is blatant discrimination for anyone with a Muslim name.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

25. One of my guilty pleasures is watching Bollywood movies and he really is a Huge

movie star. It would be the equivalent of Brad Pitt being held for questioning. But of course Brad Pitt's last name is anglo and he has blond hair, light skin and blue eyes.

:rofl:

[Ian David]

32. Maybe, but, WWBLD?

See also:

My loony bun is fine, Benny Lava.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=247x20705

[RufusTFirefly]

3. Serves him right for being brown and Muslim

:sarcasm:

[Alameda]

5. Read more and see they frisked the former Indian president!

This is really out of control....enough!!!!"Last month U.S-based carrier Continental Airlines apologized to former Indian president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for frisking him at New Delhi airport."

[malaise]

9. Ding ding n/t

[BlooInBloo]

11. Welcome to America.

[PassingFair]

13. This guy is the biggest star in India!

My daughter did a foreign exchange in India
last year and came back with lots of pictures
of him.




"Khan, who had just finished a month-long shoot in the United States for his upcoming film "My Name is Khan," which is about a Muslim man's experience with racial profiling."

It does seem a little fishy that this happens WHILE FILMING a documentary about racial profiling, though.

Sounds like a set-up thing.

[Deja Q]

17. It's probably a set-up. Or poetic justice or karma, or by any chance is he gay?

:9

[Recursion]

28. Here's an anecdote about how Bollywood is different from Hollywood

Shah Rukh Khan was actually fighting for his career a couple of years ago. It was a huge scandal in India and he nearly got blacklisted by all the studios.

What had he done? He was seen smoking at a soccer game.

[Xicano]

34. How come no one in that image looks like they're from India?

n/t

[Deja Q]

14. If old women and young children will be held, what makes KHAAAAAN think he gets special treatment?

[spanone]

16. welcome to ameriKKKa mr kahn.

[Deja Q]

19. I loved the episode of "The Unit" where the white teenage girl tells the officer about racism...

Except the officer is BLACK and she has the nerve to say their bringing in a possible terrorist is racist.

Don't forget, white people are seen as racists too by the TSA.

So TS. To A.

(A=All, T=Tough, S=.... )

[Overseas]

21. A couple of hours of interrogation is what gets me.

After Sharukh told them who he was, they could have Googled his name to see that indeed, he is a world famous movie star from India. Then they could have called the Indian consulate who would have verified his identity and vouched for him.

But instead they kept the thing going for a couple of hours? That is the ridiculous part.

[Deja Q]

23. So being famous somewhere entitles one to a free pass?! THAT'S NUTS.

Everybody bleats about being fair, treated equally, and now we're going to give out free passes because he's famous.

People need to get real.

[Overseas]

30. Being someone whose Non-Terrorist Status can be verified in 20-seconds

and then confirmed in another 30-second phone call to the Indian consulate DOES MATTER.

You can't verify my identity as easily. I'm not a great star on the way to a parade.

[jmowreader]

26. I see a small problem with that

If the first words out of Khan's mouth were "don't you know who I am?" any cop is going to think, "I sure do! You're the guy who's going to sit in our holding cell all weekend until we get around to verifying your identity." There's a story on this fine website about a 22-year-old American police officer who almost hauled Bob Dylan in. If this happens to one of America's most influential musicians, how could it NOT happen to someone like Khan? He's India's biggest movie star, but Americans don't know jack about Indian cinema.

[Overseas]

31. So arrogance is now against the law, I guess? And police can't Google?

I just don't understand why the cops who don't know the person can't Google and see that Oh Yeah, there's this decrepit looking old guy who's one of America's great songwriters. Or call someone at the office to say hey-- send me a photo of this guy Bob Dylan.

And ditto with Sharukh. I'm not saying believe every handsome guy or lovely thing that comes along and says they're a great movie star. I'm saying use some tools from this century to look the guy up. And then gee whiz when you see the photo looks like your guy, hey-- use a tool from prior centuries and call the damn consulate for verification.

NO TWO HOUR DETENTION REQUIRED.

Use your computer. Do cops not have Blackberrys? If not, can they phone the office and have another cop check data on line?

[jmowreader]

36. I didn't know you COULD google from a police car

As for the TSA...they spent all their money on machines to look through people's clothes and on special bomb detectors for carry-on bags (neglecting, of course, to buy bomb detectors to install at the gates of cargo terminals to check incoming freight--the State of Kentucky has them at all their weigh stations, they can't be outrageously expensive) so they can't afford Internet access for their PCs.

[Recursion]

27. "One of India's best known actors"? Try one of the world's best known actors.

This guy is beyond huge. He's Michael Jackson huge. (I'm a big SRK fan.)

[slampoet]

29. I have only seen three Bollywood movies in my life and even I see this guy looks familiar.

even though he wasn't in the movies i saw.

[mitchum]

33. And then inexplicably everyone broke into a musical number

[RagAss]

35. Bwahahahahahaaa