Obama's speech: Hey US immigration guys, here's Shah Rukh Khan for you
Shah Rukh Khan is probably the happiest Indian today. Given the fact that all of India is still recovering from the Obama fever, now that the US President is not on Indian soil any longer, this actor has a lot to rejoice about. After all, how often do you have two of the most powerful leaders of two of the world’s greatest democracies spout words uttered by a Hindi film actor, within hours of each other? The coolness quotient of that incident aside, the Shah Rukh Khan image might just have re-established itself as India’s most powerful export to the world. Not the Taj, not jute, not India’s numerous other symbols can match up to the amount of glee that Indians all over the world felt when Barack Obama, in his broken Hindi, began his Siri Fort address today with “Senorita... badi badi deshon mein aisi chhoti chhoti baatein hoti rehti hai...”
In a matter of minutes, Shah Rukh fans took Twitter by storm, making "SRK Pride of India" trend all over the country. Social media went berserk wondering how could Shah Rukh, the only actor probably who had had the most run-ins with US airport authorities, be the person Obama ended up quoting, alongside Gandhi. And Narendra Modi’s farewell tweet to friend Obama also had the same dialogue (by now on the lips of every Indian everywhere, probably), “Farewell @WhiteHouse! Your visit has taken India-USA ties to a new level & opened a new chapter. Wish you a safe journey... As for the rainy day yesterday, as you yourself said @WhiteHouse today morning, Bade Bade Deshon Mein... :)” – smileys, et al! Khan took a while and responded with a – “Proud 2 b part of the gender & religion equality speech of Pres Obama. Sad he couldn't do the Bhangra...next time Chaiyya Chaiyya for sure (sic)”.
No, the Senorita dialogue is not just the end of Obama’s love for Khan. Further into the address, talking things as grave as religion and diversity in India, too, the US Prez went ahead and referred to Shah Rukh. A part of his speech went, “...India can succeed so long as it is not splintered along religious lines; so long as it's not splintered along any lines...All Indians, whatever your faith, go to the movies and applaud actors like Shah Rukh Khan, when you celebrate athletes like Milkha Singh or Mary Kom...”
And what is perhaps the best part of the entire episode is the fact that it was Shah Rukh – the actor, the person, the Khan – who had emerged as the most memorable part of Obama’s speech. Shah Rukh’s relations with the US, after all, has been quite peppered with not-so-happy instances here and there. In 2012, for example, in SRK’s own words, the US airport officials “kicked the star out of stardom” when he was detained at the White Plains Airport, when he was there, to speak at Yale University. The Indian government’s intervention, finally, ushered the actor out of the questioning rooms. Later, in his Yale address, SRK joked about the entire incident, saying, “Whenever I start feeling too arrogant about myself, I always make a trip to America. The immigration guys kicked the star out of stardom. They (immigration officials) always ask me how tall I am, and I always lie and say 5 foot 10 inches. Next time, I am going to get more adventurous. (If they ask me) what colour are you, I am going to say white.”
Before that, in 2009, too, Khan was detained for several hours, for questioning, at the Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. Shah Rukh’s visit to the US then was to promote his film My Name Is Khan, which, ironically, dealt with the racial profiling that a person with the surname "Khan" had to deal with in post-9/11 America.
This time around, Shah Rukh might not have his "star kicked out of stardom", thanks to Barack Obama, and the speech that is doing the rounds of both India – and the US, too, probably – today. And, luck forbid, if at all the immigration guys happen to stop him at any US airport for "questioning", we know what SRK’s answer will be: lowering his aviators, looking into the eyes of the Senorita (okay, Senor, maybe), and saying, “...badi badi deshon mein aisi chhoti chhoti baatein hoti rehti hai!” Hair flip; and peace out!