*::Criminal Of Our Hearts! ~ SRK FC::* - Page 64

Don of a new era in Germany

Anuradha Sharma, TNN | Sep 25, 2011, 05.09AM IST
For Tara, Don 2 is more special than Ra.One, Shah Rukh Khan's next big release. It was during the shooting of this film that the mother of three endured a minus 9 degrees-chill to hold a poster that read: Alvida chahte hain ke aap humare saath ek group photo lijiye. Pyar se! The minor errors in the request can be forgiven. Hindi, after all, is not her mothertongue , and neither is she Indian. Tara is German - one of the countless SRK devotees who chased the Bollywood star from one location to another, picketing in front of his hotel during six weeks of Don 2's shooting in Berlin last year. Tara isn't her real name either. She is Heike V, an educator based in Berlin who acquired this name when she joined an SRK fan club a few years ago.

She's not alone. Germany and neighbouring countries have had diehard SRK fans for long, especially since 2004 when a German television channel, RTL2 TV, showed Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham dubbed in German for the first time.

The German interest in Indian cinema is not new. Raj Kapoor, Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen have enthralled niche audiences in the past. Now, though, the fans are even travelling to India and learning Bollywood dance moves. Often the interest in all things desi goes beyond films. When the anti-corruption crusade was on in India recently, Tara's Facebook wall had a message that said 'I support Anna Hazare' . The Tricolour had been added for extra effect.

People like Tara are a small but significant community, says Michael Schied, a Berlin-based scholar of South Asian studies. All the while Don 2 was being shot in Berlin, Schied was interviewing SRK fans. "There used to be a group of fans outside his hotel every day. The gathering got bigger on weekends when fans from other parts of Germany, Austria and Poland joined in," he adds.

The euphoria was all too evident. Every move by Shah Rukh at the shoots triggered a roar from the crowd which went "Shah Rukh-Shah Rukh" and "Om Shanti Om" . Tara was among those who stood with a cake outside the hotel on his birthday on November 2. "The first thing Hrithik Roshan, who makes a special appearance in the film, asked us when he saw us on that night was what we were doing on the street at that hour," says Tara. She was lucky and got to meet SRK. As for the birthday cake, Tara and her friends ate it as the guards wouldn't allow them inside the hotel.

So besotted are his fans that SRK's appearance at the Berlinales 2008 (Berlin Film Festival) was a challenge for the organizers. "Not just traffic jams, people flooded the boulevard in front of the theatre too," says Maya Kristin Schonfelder , a Berlin-based journalist. "Berlinale staff got so worried that they briefly considered air-lifting Shah Rukh, but he refused and walked right into the crowd and spent one full hour with his fans." No wonder the tickets for Om Shanti Om got sold out in less than five minutes.

This display of open adulation is quite unlike the usually reserved and uptight German. In fact, even clapping inside theatres is uncommon. "Bollywood appeals at a certain emotional level which western films don't ," explains Schied as Schonfelder adds: "Hindi movies are liked mostly by young people who have travelled abroad or are at least aware of it through internet and Facebook. This generation is different from the older one and is much more emotional and willing to express themselves. Also, unlike Hollywood, Bollywood offer an ideal escape. Everyone knows the stories in these films aren't real."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...a-new-era-in-Germany/articleshow/10110731.cms

Originally posted by: SRKno1fan

OMG! That would be the worst! Imagine how sad he would be!! 😭😭😭

Shahrukh khan At Ra.One western Union Press Conference [ FULL]