Shahrukh Khan blames controversy on ‘writing error’

Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan yesterday denied he had “hurt the religious sentiments” of Muslims and said his comments to a magazine were misinterpreted due to a “writing error”.

On Thursday, the Mumbai Aman Committee (MAC) filed a police complaint after its members read in the Time’N Style-Luxury magazine that Khan had listed Prophet Muhammad as one of the most unimpressive personalities in history alongside Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill.

But Khan said it was a “writing error” and that he had named the Prophet among the most impressive personalities in history.

“Obviously I think that there is no more important figure in history than Prophet Muhammad in the most positive way possible. Also, being a Muslim and standing up for the tenets of Islam is my most important agenda. If they (MAC) have seen my interviews on TV about Islam and Prophet Muhammad, they would know it’s a writing error and not a thought or view that I believe in,” Khan said.

“For all practical purposes, Prophet Muhammad is the most important positive figure in Islam,” he added.

The magazine published a corrigendum in all Mumbai newspapers on Thursday accepting the error.

The corrigendum stated: “This is with reference to the interview with Shahrukh Khan that featured in Time’N Style-Luxury Vol-1 issue: The answer to question ‘According to you who is the most impressive figure in history?’ should have appeared as: ‘There are lots of them. Some negative ones like Hitler. Then Napoleon, Winston Churchill were impressive.

“ ‘If I can call it history then the most impressive, positive figure Prophet Muhammad and from recent times there are the nice ones like Nelson Mandela, Gandhiji and Mother Teresa.’ This is a clarification and the error is deeply regretted.’”
A police official, however, confirmed that the case had not been withdrawn even after the corrigendum was published.