TRADE TALK – ‘My Name Is Khan’: First Look Unveiled

Shah Rukh Khan was his usual witty self at the party to unveil the first look of My Name Is Khan on 16th Dece­mber at Hotel JW Marriott. He fielded questions from the media with the confidence of a seasoned professional which he is. Giving him company were his co-star, Kajol, and producer-director Karan Johar.

Shah Rukh thanked Karan for taking him as a partner in My Name Is Khan which he described as “the best film of Karan”. On his part, Karan said, the nega­tive of not just Khan but rather of every film of his was going to be willed by him to Shah Rukh’s two kids, in any case.

The first look of the film left the press persons speechless. Going by the three-minute trailer of the film, the film seems to have a strong love story and an even stronger emotional base. Shah Rukh plays Rizvan Khan who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome. The disea­se is named after Dr. Hans Asperger who first noticed the traits in children. People afflicted by Asperger’s Syndro­me are not mad, rather, they are intelligent, but they don’t understand people. Rizvan meets Mandira (Kajol), falls in love with her and gets married to her. Their life is blissful till the September 11, 2001 bombings in America. That one disaster turns Rizvan’s life upside down.

The film’s logo has the first three words in white and ‘Khan’ in red. Quite coincidentally, Karan, Shah Rukh and Kajol, all wore black with a dash of red for the press meet. Karan’s formal suit was black while his plain shirt was off-white, with a red collar. Kajol was dress­ed in a black saree with a red border. Shah Rukh, like Karan, came in a black suit with his red-rimmed glasses strategically placed in his coat pocket so that only the red rim was visible. It seemed as if the trio had coordinated their even­ing wear but Karan swore, it was by sheer chance that all of them were dressed in black and red.

The first look of My Name Is Khan, which was shown to the media at 9.45 p.m., was unveiled to the public in India on all the channels of Star TV at 10 p.m. the same day. The first trailer of one of the most expensive films of Bolly- wood was thereafter beamed in 70 countries, at 10 p.m. in each of them. The simultaneous worldwide release of the promotional trailer (it was viewed in 70 countries in a matter of 24 hours, due to variations in time in the different countries) was planned because the worldwide distributors of the film, Twen­tieth Century Fox, will release …Khan the world over on 14th February next year. In other words, a host of countries where Hindi films are not released traditionally, will see Khan hitting their cine­mas on the same day as it is relea­sed in India and the traditional Over­seas markets like the USA and the UK.

Twentieth Century Fox was repre­sented at the party by Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India, and Vijay Singh, CEO of Fox Star Studios.

Indeed, the trailer was appreciated so much by those present at the party and similarly by the public later that it seems, the film will get an unprecedented opening when it hits the screens next year.

Issue dated Dec 20 – 26, 2009

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