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| Shah Rukh Khan with Mamata Banerjee at the felicitation of the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens after the team won IPL 5 and (above) riverfront beautification is one of the areas where the government wants the star’s support |
They hooked him with a plate of fried fish. Now they are looking to him to fish them out of troubled waters.
While Shah Rukh Khan is busy va-va-vrooming on the roads of London with Anushka Sharma (for an untitled Yash Chopra film), the state government is eagerly waiting for its new poster boy to come back to “his city” and inject some vroom into Brand Bengal.
For starters, the government is looking for the superstar’s support in three areas — riverfront beautification, housing for the poor and entertainment.
According to municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim, Shah Rukh is scheduled to visit Calcutta in July to discuss in detail projects that were mentioned to him by chief minister Mamata Banerjee and others in her cabinet during the KKR boss’s visits to the city for the IPL.
Sources close to SRK could not confirm any such travel plan but the government may take heart from the star’s words, spoken after his meeting with Mamata on April 5 at Writers’ Buildings, during which he had been floored by the fried fish served to him. Asked about his single biggest deliverable as Bengal’s brand ambassador, Shah Rukh had said: “The only D here is Didi. Whatever she will say, will be my deliverable.”
Privately, the charmer is said to have told the chief minister: “I will come to Calcutta whenever you need me. Just give me a 48-hour notice and if I am in India, I will come.”
Though the discussions about Shah Rukh’s “deliverables” as brand ambassador started at Writers’, informal meetings kept happening in the course of IPL 5, and in the unlikeliest of places.
One such opportunity arose on the evening of April 5, as the first KKR home match, against Delhi Daredevils, was delayed by rain. “Everyone was waiting for the match to start. A number of ministers were in Shah Rukh’s box and discussed possible projects that he could get involved with as Bengal’s brand ambassador,” said a source who was in the Platinum Lounge box.
And after the mega show on May 29 to celebrate KKR’s maiden IPL win, as 1 lakh-plus Calcuttans left the Eden Gardens, Shah Rukh, Mamata and some ministers waited in the dressing room. Tea was served and the conversation veered towards Shah Rukh’s future involvement in the state. “Firhad Hakim mentioned that the state was looking at low-cost housing for the poor and Shah Rukh said he knew some people who were involved with such projects elsewhere. He said he would facilitate a contact,” said a member of team KKR.
Hakim also claimed that Shah Rukh was instrumental in getting the entertainment arm of Zee to bid for the Uttarpara film city, a project that had almost been abandoned in the absence of investors.
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