Hindi film superstar Shah Rukh Khan isn't intimidated by the full-body-scan machines that have been recently installed at London's airports. In fact, he has been signing off printouts of his X-rays.
Khan, appearing on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross — one of British television's most popular weekend shows — revealed that he has been turning the controversial security machines into a public relations opportunity at London's Heathrow airport.
"I'm always stopped by the security, because of the name. And I think it's okay: the Western world is a little bit worried, paranoid and touchy, I guess — and feely when they are frisking you," Khan told his celebrity chat show host moments after explaining how his new film is about a Muslim named Khan on a mission to tell the US president he is not a terrorist.
"I was in London recently going through the airport and these new machines have come up, the body scans. You have got to see them. It makes you embarrassed — if you are not well endowed.
"You walk into the machine and everything — the whole outline of your body — comes out."
Khan said he did not know that the body-scans — installed in the wake of last year's abortive Christmas Day bombing of a transatlantic flight over Detroit, Michigan — showed up every little detail of one's body.
"I was a little scared. Something happens [inside the scans], and I came out.
"Then I saw these girls — they had these printouts. I looked at them. I thought they were some forms you had to fill. I said, 'Give them to me' — and you could see everything inside. So I autographed them for them."
Khan became the first Hindi film star to be invited on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross after Shilpa Shetty in 2007, following her controversial appearance on Channel 4's Celebrity Big Brother, where the late British reality TV star Jade Goody was accused of bullying and abusing her.
But the Indian star, who is here for the London premier of his new film My Name Is Khan, said he was "a little tense" because of threats by Shiv Sena activists in Mumbai to stop screenings of the film.
"I didn't say much," said Khan. "All I said was that we are Indians and we should welcome everyone with open arms into our country. We cannot say 'No, this country's people can't come or that country's people can't come'.
"It's been blown out of proportion, and now they are stopping my film and not allowing it to be released. I'm a little tense."
Khan was cheered wildly by the studio audience at the BBC show, an indication of the rising mainstream appeal of Hindi films in Britain. His Friday Night appearance alongside popular British TV star John Barrowman and presenter Lorraine Kelly was thought to be the first by a Hindi film superstar on an international television show.
Fittingly, the show ended with Khan, Ross and Kelly dancing Bollywood-style in Spanish outfits to a performance of the
disco classic Copacabana by Barrowman.
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