SRK listed among 50 Most Powerful People

SRK: Powerful, who me??

23 Dec 2008, 0009 hrs IST, AFSANA AHMED

Bollywood Badshah Shah Rukh Khan, shooting in LA for My Name is Khan, was amazed to find himself counted among the world's 50 Most Powerful

People in a poll that also lists Sonia Gandhi from India and is topped by President-elect Barack Obama from the US.

"What have I done to deserve this," asked SRK who is placed at No 41, ahead of the Dalai Lama and American TV high priestess Oprah Winfrey. "I am humbled, but at the same time I realise the power of Asians around the world... just by their love for my work they have changed the perception of an Indian actor. Wow!"

But, the actor truly believed the Dalai Lama and Oprah do a lot more good for people around the world than he does. And he promised to touch more lives in a positive way from now on. "Haule haule ho jayega," said Shah Rukh. Power to him meant the ability to live a life of happiness on his own terms. "Where honesty and goodness need not be sacrificed to make a livelihood, where you have the freedom to be compassionate to all without worrying how your status will be affected, where you know that you can face your God with head held high."

He also admitted Sonia Gandhi deserved to be in the power list more than anybody. "A lone woman in an alien land doing so much for the country..." he said. But then Shah Rukh Khan also thought every common man who rides in a bullock-cart, who takes a bus or train to work, who celebrates every festival with so much happiness for so little, deserved to be in the power list. "I think 1.2 billion Indians deserve to be there before me. Perhaps, I stand up for these billion Indians, I'm just the representative of all of us... not actually the powerful one."

Hail SRK, now also King of Hollywood!

Shah Rukh Khan was named by Newsweek in its list of 50 most powerful people in the world - and no surprises there because King Khan rules Bollywood.

But Newsweek has also rated SRK more powerful than everyone in Hollywood.

Shah Rukh has been rated 41st most powerful (or influential) person in the world and nobody from Hollywood even makes the list. So no Brad Pitt, no Angelina Jolie, no George Clooney, no Coen Brothers, no Steven Spielberg, no George Lucas...SRK is bigger than all of them! And here's why Newsweek is so impressed by him: he sends India's culture across to other nations that don't have any culture.

Newsweek says: "Khan is huge in the Muslim world, even in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the mullahs ban his films. (The movies thrive on the black market.) Their main appeal is certainly the song-and-dance numbers, but Khan (a Muslim married to a Hindu) makes devoutly secular films where love trounces bigotry. Sonia Gandhi gives Khan's DVDs to visitors, especially Muslim ones. Here's hoping tolerance will leap from reel life to real life."

In fact the only other entertainer on the global list is empress of television Oprah Winfrey - and even she is behind SRK, being rated only 47th most powerful person.

So now we can call SRK the Emperor of Entertainment!

http://www.starboxoffice.com/newsDetails.aspx?xfile=2008/December/News_20081222_166

Hes so sweet but its amazing like how his status is getting bigger and bigger...good for him!