I am an actor, not an entrepreneur: SRK

Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan who co-owns the Kolkata Knight Riders IPL franchise and runs a film production house, said he was not an entrepreneur but an actor who endeavours to make a difference with his acting, reports IANS.

“I am hardly an entrepreneur. I don’t even think of myself as a star. I see myself as someone who is trying to make a difference with his acting,” said Khan addressing the media at the inauguration of Prayag Film City (PFC). “I come from a middle-class background. I like to work 18-20 hours a day and for the last 30 years I have been following this schedule. I have two passions: sports and film-making. I have a production house and a cricket franchise,” said Khan.

Khan, who was present at the curtain-raiser of the phase-1 of the sprawling PFC, said the facility will make a difference to the art of film-making not only in eastern India but to the entire film fraternity of the country.

The actor also regaled the gathering with some of his famous dialogues from his films Don, Baazigar and Devdas and danced to a popular song from the movie Ra-One.

A victim of US random selection system

It has been revealed that the recent detention and the two-hour questioning of the star at a small airport in New York could have been a result of the random selection parameter built into the US immigration’s security system rather than only racial profiling. The question whether that parameter was designed deliberately to focus on people of certain names, religion, background, nationality or race has cropped up again. The possible answer is unlikely to placate a certain segment of Indian population that feels outraged at the actor’s treatment.

Khan’s name or one that closely resembles his appears to be on a list of over a million others that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has compiled of people it thinks are, at the very least, of suspicious people. Getting off that list for those like the actor who have absolutely nothing to do with terrorism has been known to be a nightmare in America.

(With additional information from Times of India)

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2012.