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An open letter to Shah Rukh Khan from Barkha Dutt

"You, Shah Rukh — the real life man — not Raj or Rahul, your screen avatars — are my hero. But shamefully, I must admit — We don’t deserve you."

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After Rajdeep Sardedai, now it is Barkha Dutt who wrote an open letter. The renowned journalist wrote the letter to King Khan of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan where she mentioned about her interview with him last week.

She lauded Shah Rukh by saying, "You spoke on everything from the fight at the film institute (you back the students) to those returning awards (not your preferred way of protest, but you find them brave). And despite what the Sena threatened you with, in 2010, you reiterated your support for creative people from Pakistan to be given space in our films."

With sadness she ends the letter by saying, "You, Shah Rukh — the real life man — not Raj or Rahul, your screen avatars — are my hero. But shamefully, I must admit — We don’t deserve you."

She said in the letter, "This week some Right-wing ideologues asked me why I asked you what I did. They implied that by discussing issues of creative freedom, the wider debate around tolerance and, above all, the scrutiny you have had to face as an Indian Muslim from chest-thumping, hyper-nationalists, I was revealing signs of my own twisted and communal mind."

Furthermore, she mentioned about the Shah Rukh having told her that he has no friends.

Also Read: Intolerance Debate: How Shah Rukh Khan's comments exposed the right-wing fringe

"You have opened up about how “solitary and reclusive” you are and why your daughter is the only one who really understands you."

She told that he has laughed at himself and made her laugh as well.

"You have always taken questions from the media head-on, handling them with self-deprecating wit — even when one or two of them are intrusive, tasteless and irritate the hell out of you. Like the time you laughingly told the reporter who asked if you were gay: 'Kabhi mere saath ek raat to guzaro (Spend a night with me sometime)'."

Dutt wrote in the letter about his encounter with the hate brigade who wanted to banish him to Pakistan and he was asked to say sorry for his view that Pakistanis should be allowed to play in the Indian Premiere League and he refused to do so.

She mentioned about the time when Shiv Sena was attacking theatres screening his film My Name is Khan and wanted an apology from him before its release.

Shah Rukh replied, “I’ve been telling everyone there are three kinds of identities we have; we have a familial identity by the religion we are born in, so you’re a Muslim, a Hindu, or a Sikh and you’ve got to believe that because that’s what you’ve been taught. Then, there is the place that you live and work in, or are born in and work — that’s your regional identity. But all this is a subset of your country’s identity, of your national identity; when did subsets become more important than the set itself?”

Later after two years he again got into a scuffle at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium. She wrote, "You regretted it later and said you’d made a mistake — but I still remember how you told me that the official whispered a communal slur to you, an abuse that once again targeted you for your religion."

Shah Rukh said in her interview, “To all those, telling me to go to Pakistan, this is my country, I am not going anywhere. So shut up, just shut up.”

Read the full text of the letter here.

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