Shahrukh show in Dhaka and his Dubai connection

by Srabanti Majumder
December 16, 2010

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1169/shahrukh-show-in-dhaka-and-his-dubai-connection

December 10, 2010 show of Bollywood super-star Shahrukh Khan has greatly dampened the image of India, as the 'King of Bollywood' cashed huge amount of money from Bangladeshi organizer named Antar Showbiz and put several half-nude Russian girls on the dais to rather exhibit extreme vulgarity in the name of dancing with famous Indian songs.

India is the country, which is respected as the 'Mecca' of cultural heritage in the sub-continent. They have the pride of having cultural legends like Rabindra Nath Tagore, Bankim Chandra, Mirza Ghalib, Bismillah Khan, Satyajit Roy, Muhammed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, Mukesh, Begum Akhtar, SD Burman, RD Burman, Shyamal Mitra, Manna Dey, Raj Kapoor, Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Kishore Kumar, Uttam Kumar, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Amitabh Bachchan, Suchitra Sen, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, AR Rehman and thousands of such glorious names.

Since independence of Bangladesh in 1971, at least a few hundred cultural programs were organized in Dhaka and other parts of the country, which were participated by performers from India. Several Bollywood actors as well as actors from Kolkata film circle worked in Bangladeshi movies. There has never been any complaint of vulgarity when Indian artistes either worked in local movies or attended various events in Bangladesh. But, the December 10 event titled 'Shahrukh Khan Night' has already angered locals, because Shahrukh Khan visited Bangladesh with a team of Russian girls, who were competing on dais in exposing bodies with semi-nude dresses, instead of any real performance.

Shahrukh Khan visited Bangladesh along with Rani Mukherji, Arjun Rampal, Eisha Koppikar and 'item-girl' Shefali Jariwala. Due to massive mismanagement of the event by Antar Showbiz [a local even management organization], famous Bangladeshi singer Kumar Biswajit and actor Shakib Khan finally stepped back from performing in the show.

Antar Showbiz is owned by Swapan Chowdhury and his wife Nasrin Chowdhury. They organized a program in Bangladesh in 1997 titled 'Hot Summer Night', where Antar Showbiz invited Bollywood star Salman Khan, Manisha Koirala, singer Baba Sehgal and others. Thousands of tickets were sold for the show. But, finally, though the Bollywood stars came to Bangladesh, the event did not take place as Antar Showbiz did not make any booking of Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka, which was declared as the venue of the event. Swapan Chowdhury and his gang went into hiding right after the huge mess centering the event.

The same organizers once again came at the focal point of local media when they declared to bring Shahrukh Khan for a show at Army Stadium in Dhaka. It is learnt that, a Mumbai resident named Mazhar as well as Arjun Rampal played important role in connecting Shahrukh Khan and other Bollywood stars with the Bangladeshi event management organization. Only Shahrukh was contracted with an amount of US$ 200,000 for a 4-hour performance, while significant amounts were also paid to other participants of the 'Shahrukh Khan Night'. Though Army Stadium has sitting capacity of 15-20 thousand people, more than 25 thousand tickets were sold for this event, which amounted to Bangladeshi Taka 200 million [US$ 2.9 million]. Interestingly, major segment of payment to Indian artistes were done through illegal 'Hawala' channel. Shahrukh Khan's declared amount though was sent to India, major segment of his payment was secretly transferred to hidden account of this Bollywood star in Dubai. It may be mentioned here that, Shahrukh Khan maintains 'intimate' relations with a number of questioned Dubai residents, some of whom are even at the red list of Interpol and Indian law enforcing agencies.

Being inspired hearing the news of Shahrukh Khan's Bangladesh tour, two sculptures of the Bollywood Khan was made by two impoverished Bangladeshi brothers named Shusen [17] and Shumon [18], which were meant to be auctioned to fund their education. The day of the event turned out to be a disappointment for both the boys who were waiting in the green-room for hours hoping that 'King Khan' will do something in their favour and auction the sculptures. But Shahrukh Khan instead of auctioning the works of the poor boys took both the sculptures with him as a gift! The event organizer also did not pay anything to the boys either.

On spot investigation at Dhaka Regency Hotel, where the Russian girls of Shahrukh Khan Team were boarded since December 8, 2010, it was learnt that the event organizers as some of the team members of SRK were actively helping those Russian girls in getting into immoral activities, thus cashing huge amount of money. Such indecent activities of the entourage of Shahrukh Khan have greatly damaged the excellent image of Bollywood in Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, Bangladeshi intelligence and revenue departments are actively investigating various irregularities centering the show. Bangladesh Bank [Central Bank] is also investigating as to how Antar Showbiz remitted the amounts of remuneration to the foreign artistes.

Antar Showbiz owner Swapan Chowdhury has on the other hand told Bangladeshi media on December 14, 2010 that his organization is now working on organizing a grant event in Dhaka in March 2011 with internationally known pop singer Shakira. Swapan told reporters that, necessary contracts have already been signed with Shakira for this program. Details of the contract as well as how the huge amount of remuneration has been transferred is yet a mystery.

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