Jon Wilks is at Emirates Palace all day today for us as Shahrukh Khan and Kajol hit town for the premier of My Name is Khan.
We’ll be updating you with news, views and pictures before we chat to the stars themselves.
Watch this space…..
10am
My name is Jon. Khan is elsewhere. Let’s see if we can find him, shall we?
So, here we are. You lot. Us lot. Shahrukh Khan, Kajol and Karan Johar. Emirates Palace is always a nice place to get to know people, and it’s basking under very friendly skies this morning. If you’re thinking of coming down to try and catch a glimpse of Bollywood’s favourite son, be warned – there’s a big police presence outside the palace gates and security is on relatively high alert. You’d think someone famous was in town, or something. The courtyard is decked out in all kinds of 20th Century Fox and Dharma Productions ephemera. It certainly looks the part for a world premiere, but it doesn’t take much to make Emirates Palace a spectacular setting for any situation. Worth peering through the gates for that alone.
No sign of Khan or Kajol yet – presumably they’re still in bed or flying in. Nobody has really told us very much yet. The waiters seem a bit twitchy, though. I just asked one of them what he makes of all this, and he just giggled and scuttled away. I hope he doesn’t do that if SRK asks him for a coffee. Don’t want the Bollywood elite getting the wrong idea about the level of service on offer in our wonderful city.
I’ll be keeping you regularly updated throughout the day. Feel free to drop your comments and questions at the bottom of this blog.
10.30am
Things are hotting up here at Emirates Palace: they’ve brought the biscuits out!
Meanwhile, I’m sitting in the coffee lounge sorting through the hundreds of questions you’ve been sending for Khan and Kajol. Many thanks – I’m only sorry we weren’t able to help you answer the most frequently posed question, ‘CAN YOU HELP ME MEET HIM?’ It’s certainly gratifying to know that you think we have that kind of power, but alas, there’s a supertight operation going on here today and getting past security will take some cunning (or a pre-approved appointment).
Still, the questions you have for the Bollywood duo are grand, and I’m quite happy to receive more if you have anything killer to ask. Get them to me before 11.00am and we’ll see what we can do (jonathan.wilks@itp.com). However, due to time restrictions, we’ll have to ask them in the order that they arrived – first come, first served, an’all that. We meet the man himself at 11.30am…
Check out some pics of Kajol
11.30am
The time is nigh, but the man ain’t ready. Presumably it takes some time to fix his perfect hair. Meanwhile, we sit patiently in the outer quarters of his hotel room. His people serve an excellent cup of coffee. We have to be careful not to hit caffeine overload – bouncing off the walls wouldn’t look too cool.
Elsewhere, rumours are that Kajol and Karan’s plane is late, but they’ll be here by the afternoon. Sharhrukh Khan arrived last night and went straight to sleep. We reckon he was well aware that, at 11.30am this morning, he’d be facing his toughest interviewees yet: YOU!
12pm
SRK is still having his hair done, so we’re helping ourselves to his sandwiches. The Emirates Palace butler assigned to Khan’s room seems delighted with himself. Are you a fan, we ask? He beams the morning’s biggest smile: ‘Everybody is, Sir.’ If we have to wait much longer, that’ll be ‘everybody’ minus one!
12.30pm
Still no sign of our man, but the hotel is buzzing now. Film crews, production teams, catering assistants – everyone is flitting about, chatting to one another on walkie talkies. We’ve eaten are fill of Shahrukh sandwiches, and now we’re thinking about an early afternoon nap.
News is filtering in of continued protests over the film itself back in Mumbai. As we said before, security is on high alert, but everything seems calm enough. Hopefully, by the next post, we’ll have met the man himself. Kajol and Karan are said to be 15 minutes away… we hope we’re not late for our appointment with them.
Check out some pics of Shahrukh Khan
1pm
Shahrukh Khan is apparently ‘on his way’.
Reports are coming in that over 100 fans have gathered outside the hotel, with more expected throughout the day. Khan, who was seen arriving late last night accompanied by an ‘entourage’ of bodyguards, is staying in one of the hotel’s most exclusive rooms – Dhs51,000 per night – though it’s thought he won’t be picking up the bill.
Meanwhile, Time Out Abu Dhabi has moved away from the sandwich tray and is now focusing on the mixed fruits.
2.30
SRK was a charmer. Such a charmer! He was happy to answer your questions (as many as we could fit in). Keep an eye on timeoutabudhabi.com to see if he answered yours.
The answers to your questions will be here very soon.
15:45
Today has been a blur of Bollywood and snacks. It’s really flown by. It’s interesting, actually, being one of the few journalists here not specialising in Indian cinema. The Indian journalists seem to know each other well, and there’s a keen sense of bonhomie, everyone relating past SRK encounters as though they’re talking about an old buddy who never ever put a foot wrong. He’s certainly left a good impression. Nobody has anything ill to say of him, though one person points out that he’s a master charmer and that this is all part of the act – that he’s won so many people over only goes to show how talented he really is. It’s a bit cynical, but we’re welcoming cynicism wholeheartedly at this point. The eternal Bollywood rosiness that seems to have descended on the palace can get a tad wearying.
Next up is the press conference. The whole thing is running extremely late, and we’ve yet to chat with the director, Karan Johar. We’re told it might happen later, but we’re not holding out hope, so we’re going to try and throw a few questions at him from the floor. We’ll do our best, of course, but there are about 60 journalists here and everyone is keen to talk controversy with King Khan himself. Here we go…let’s see what happens…
5.00pm
I’ve said it before today, and I’ll say it again – that Khan is charm itself. On several occasions during the press conference he had the audience in stitches with a kind of ironic self-aggrandizement, playing the superstar and the humble boy-made-good as if that’s all he’s ever done. Perhaps it is. Kajol and Karan Johar, for the most part, let him get on with it, although it’s clear that their experiences working together in the past have formed a solid friendship. The banter flows easily. It’ll be interesting to see how well it carries onto the screen.
Meanwhile, the crowds are growing, and the bling is beginning to show. As Karan mentioned to us in interview five minutes ago (yup, it actually happened!), this region is nothing if not glamorous, and you can be sure the sparkly dresses will be out in force tonight. Make sure you check www.timeoutabudhabi.com first thing tomorrow morning to see how it unfurled.
Meanwhile, I have several hours of transcribing to get through to ensure you get your answers. I’ll see you soon.
12.00am
Last I spoke to you, I was trying to find a quiet corner to transcribe. It was never going to be easy. From 6pm, the hotel was flooded with people looking glamorous clutching tickets to the premiere. Quiet corners were thin on the ground.
Getting into the Palace cinema itself took time and patience, as every attendee lined up to be scanned and searched as if they were boarding a plane (somewhat ironic, given the film’s subject matter). I queued up behind an Etihad air stewardess, decked out in her cabin crew finery. ‘Must be like going to work for you,’ I smiled. She didn’t get it. I’ve never been very good at chatting up air stewardesses.
The red carpet was long and alive with jostling camera men and boisterous journalists – the usual carnage. It was quite the shindig, possibly OTT given that only three stars were in attendance. This very quickly gave rise to the rumour that the other Khans (Aamir and Salman) were in attendance, here to support the family name. They weren’t, of course, but hungry journalists will believe anything.
First along the carpet was Kajol, with Karan Johar on her arm. She looked resplendent in a red sari, and women around me muttered jealous cusses over her apparent weight loss. Johar looked exactly as he had earlier in the day, with the exception of a pair of flashy lapels. Whatever they had to say to the press was lost under intermittent screams as the pair edged closer to their clamouring public, a wall of whom had congregated around the cinema entrance.
The biggest screams of all, of course, were reserved for Shahrukh Khan, who swept out, his towering bald bodyguard by his side. He blew a few kisses to the media and his fans (one and the same, when all’s said and done) and a strain of Beatlemania was born again, this time in Abu Dhabi.
As pandemonium ensued, I found a seat in the centre of the auditorium and settled in. What followed was confusing. The introduction to the film, complete with an appearance from the stars, was rapturously received by the audience. Two and a half hours later, the film finished amidst a couple of wolf whistles and – unbelievably – silence.
This being their first big movie premiere, it’s possible that the Abu Dhabi audience didn’t know quite how to respond, but many of them filed out as though they’d just been informed, collectively, that their grandparents had died.
Quite what Karan Johar made of the reaction is anyone’s guess. I hope his flight to Germany tonight is more comfortable than the air of disappointment he left behind.
Check in later today to find out our verdict of My Name is Khan, as well as the answers to your star questions.
