The Telegraph de Calcutta :

Wax and warmth melt SRK

- Actor says he wants to cry but won’t because of kids
AMIT ROY
Shah Rukh Khan (right) beside his wax statue at Grevin Museum in Paris on Monday. Picture by Amit Roy

Paris, April 28: Shah Rukh Khan brought happy chaos to Boulevard Montmarte in Paris today when he unveiled his remarkably lookalike waxwork model at the Grevin Museum.

“As soon as the news was out you were coming, our switchboard and email box were jammed — thank you, Mr Khan,” said Veronique Berecz, the museum’s head of public relations.

She recalled there had been big crowds for the American singer Michael Jackson 10 years ago “but nowhere like your fans here today — the numbers today are overwhelming, incredible”.

Gendarmes erected steel barriers to hold back his surprisingly multiracial collection of fans, with a group of middle-aged white women standing behind a poster bearing the legend, Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo and Chak De Shah Rukh.

Music from Om Shanti Om and other Shah Rukh movies poured out into the Paris streets.

In the opulent theatre inside, rose petals were tossed over Shah Rukh as he walked in, with friend Karan Johar by his side. There were emotional tributes from young French fans, including one who attempted Hindi.

Another, Mounia Azibi, an 18-year-old student, who became hooked after watching Devdas, enthused: “You can do wonders with your eyes and your acting — and your body.”

Shah Rukh was casual in jeans, white tee-shirt, leather jacket and trainers, precisely matching the clothes on his waxwork model.

After the welcoming speeches, as he went up on stage formally to pose by his double, his wife, Gauri, was heard to marvel: “From a distance you can’t say which is which.”

This was a generous compliment to the museum’s sculptor, Stephane Barret, which Shah Rukh also endorsed by acknowledging that “it looks more like me than anything I have seen”.

He said: “This is much better looking than I am.” (Which he had also said in London).

He was not really making comparisons with his waxwork at Madame Tussauds in London but Barret’s efforts are distinctly superior to the many other models at the Grevin, among them two others from India, Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa, as well as Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Queen Elizabeth II, Charles de Gaulle and Charles Chaplin.

“I am not some great performer like Michael Jackson or Elvis Presley — of course not even an iota of the greatness of Mahatma Gandhi or the other 2,000 statues that are here in Grevin,” began Shah Rukh, going out of his way to thank fans who had come from Poland, Germany and other countries.

He confided that he still felt the void left by the early death of his parents. “As the years are going by, I am noticing I have been able to gather love from a lot of people around the world. My family has increased to a million and it makes me feel very, very happy that someone who does not deserve all this has got this (waxwork). I promise everyone who is here that till the last breath of my life I will try and entertain you – I will dance, (and) sing as badly as I do. I will jump up and down and take off my shirt…” (loud cheers from the girls).

Turning to his waxwork, he prodded its stomach: “I don’t know if they have made the six pack but it is really, really beautiful, absolutely amazing, it’s very humbling. I would cry, actually, standing here but my kids think I never cry so I don’t want them to know I cry, but it’s a secret I share with the people of France that I do feel like crying with emotion.”

Earlier, Fredric Gouguidis, the museum’s sales and market director, said he had been a frequent visitor to India when the unanimous decision to make a likeness of Shah Rukh was being taken.

One of the sponsors is the travel company, Cox & Kings, which now intends promoting trips by Indians to Paris to see a number of attractions, including Shah Rukh’s model.

There were chaotic scenes as Shah Rukh departure in a white stretch limousine but surrounded by gendarmes and security men he made the effort to meet his fans, blowing a kiss here, giving a hug there.

D'ailleurs d'après ce que je viens de lire depuis hier, on parle plus de nous en Inde qu'en France, à se demander pourquoi les journalistes nous ont pris la tête à lui graviter autour (faisant foirer une bonne dizaine de photos grrrr)

ça y'est, il ne vont pas s'empêcher de comparer les deux statues maintenant.
Il faut vite que le pauvre SRK trouve une réponse bateau diplomatique pour ne facher personne! Car ils vont tous lui demander laquelle il préfère!
Je lui fais confiance de toutes façons.

Magnifique article!
Au fait c'est normal qu'on parle plus de nous en inde que la France! SRK est quand même beaucoup plus poplulaire et connu là bas qu'ici. Et puis cet accueil chaleureux pour est acteur indien est quand même une fièrté pour eux quelque part.

non je dis ça par rapport à la nuée de journalistes qui nous a cassé les pieds hier pour n'en parler nulle part ni hier ni aujourd'hui, je t'assure j'ai quelques photos, c'est "cherchez charlie" mode SRK, heureusement que je me suis rattrapée (bon en marchant sur tout le monde, mais d'après ce que j'ai compris c chacun pour sa gueule une fois dans la folie furieuse des hystériques donc j'ai fais pareil, j'ai voulu être gentille pas de remerciement olaaaaaaaaaaaa je m'égare c'est un autre débat ça lol)

bref avec leur grouillement façon mouche, ils nous ont pas facilité la tâche, déjà qu'on avait 1.50m de barrière (très agréable !)

Indian.beauty a écrit:

C'est vrai que en Inde la ville Pondychery (pardon pour l'orthographe) Mais il parle Français la bas .

Shahrukh remerci ses fans de pologne et d'allemagne si j'ai bien compris dans ce texte ET NOUS ???

t'inquiète il nous remercie aussi (faut juste regarder sur tous les articles, lol)

euhhhhhhhhhh il dis quoi l article en gros je suis pas du tout douée en anglais