Posts Tagged ‘Shahrukh Khan’

Make Sure to Go Watch My Name is Khan – Feb 12

// February 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Desi-Indian

Shahrukh Khan and Kajol–two of the biggest Bollywood celebrities–made history when they rang the bell to open up NASDAQ on Monday.

I am not sure what promoting capitalism has to do with the film.  Does Shahrukh Khan’s character (Rizwan Khan) in the movie also ring the NASDAQ ‘ghanti’ to reunite with his loved one? But anyway, it seems part of the heavy marketing scheme for a movie that promises entertainment value as well as progressive thought.

Watch the NASDAQ event here:

My Name is Khan And Hence I was Detained

// August 15th, 2009 // 8 Comments » // Desi-Indian, DesiPundit, Immigration, Racism

Imagine detaining Tom Cruise in Mumbai because his common name is on a list of common names allegedly associated with ‘terrorism.’

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/8312/shahrukhkhan14999619559.jpg

Shahrukh Khan is living a Kafkaesque nightmare — detained in New Jersey for his last name while he is in the United States shooting “My Name is Khan.”

And ironically, he was detained because his name ‘Khan’ (a common Muslim last name) is on some ‘no-fly’ list. Talking about giving credence to his new movie.

The Times of India reports:

The actor, who is visiting the US to attend a South Asian event where he was the guest of honor was released after Congress MP Rajiv Shukla spoke to the authorities in the US and the Indian consulate. The actor was detained after his name flashed on the computer. He was asked several questions about the purpose of his visit. His hand baggage was checked. He was not allowed to even make a phone call for nearly an hour.

I know about ridiculous things that happen due to airport security paranoia. I know that even former Indian President, Abdul Kalam, was frisked last month by an American airline in New Delhi.  Shahrukh seemed offended and perturbed, rightly so.

“I told them I was a movie star and had recently visited the country for the shooting of my film. Nothing seemed to convince the immigration officer. There were other immigration officers who even vouched for me but this particular officer did not listen to anyone. I even told them I had an invitation from the South Asian community and was there to attend an event.’’

What’s interesting is that Dave from Change.org was just telling me earlier today that Newark is not a safe space to travel for undocumented immigrants. Apparently, immigration officers don’t just discriminate based on documentation but race is also a proxy for criminality.

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Eagerly Awaiting

// August 9th, 2009 // No Comments » // Desi-Indian

nbh.jpg

I don’t like the first look. I wish Karan Johar left out the red-white-blue tricolors or made it significantly lighter–much like a backdrop. The movie is already screaming ‘NRI’ (Non-Residential Indian) with a post-9-11 theme.

‘Fair and Lovely’ No More – Bollywood Star blasts Fairness Products

// August 27th, 2008 // 4 Comments » // Desi-Indian, Racism, Videos

Accolades for Akki – Bollywood star Akshay Kumar slams ‘fairness products’ and endorsers of such products at a news conference.

Rani Mukerji, Priyanka Chopra, Bipasha Basu, Konkona Sen Sharma are all the dusky leading ladies of Bollywood that may have succumbed to the ‘Fair and Lovely’ fever at one time or another–even images of them found on the internet are substantially lighter in tone than their actual skin color.

While my mother in the United States of America is haggling me about my ’sun-burnt’ skintone wondering when it would get better and my 75-year-old grandmother ruins her face with yet another facial product in her efforts to lighten her skin color (‘fix’ her face as they put it in my family), thousands of other Indian mothers across the world buy fairness and beauty creams for their young daughters. Darkness is a curse in our culture–it is likened to ‘evil’ — one need not look further than Diwali, “Festival of Lights” — the victory of good over evil, light over dark. Even Hindu Gods are depicted as light-skinned contrary to texts that write about their androgyny and darker tones.

The persistent importance given to ‘lightness’ and ‘light-skin’ is not just Indian culture but across the world. The global economy of whiteness employs fairness creams that exacerbate and thrive on the kind of racism that privileges light skin over dark and you will even find them in markets across the Middle East and Northern Africa, in villages of Southern African countries and beyond.
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