Shah Rukh’s smoking: All smoke, no fire

Chandigarh/Amritsar: Denying reports that Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was found smoking on the campus of a Sikh institution in Amritsar, the Punjab government Thursday said it knew nothing about the matter and had not complained about it to the union health ministry.

‘No report had been sent by the Punjab government to the union health ministry,’ Punjab’s Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla told IANS.

‘I don’t know where these reports are coming from. We have not filed any complaint (against Khan). I have again just checked up with the health director. I cannot even say anything about whether he smoked there or not,’ Chawla said.

Reports in a section of the media Thursday said the union health ministry, following a Punjab government complaint against the actor’s smoking in the Khalsa College, had issued notice to him.

College functionaries, who did not want to be identified, said they were shown a picture of the superstar smoking but were not sure if the campus in the background was of their college.

‘We pointed out that the photograph did not look like that of the college. We have nothing more to say on this,’ a functionary said.

Despite the reports, no Sikh organization in Amritsar or elsewhere in Punjab has protested against Khan’s alelged act. Smoking is prohibited in the Sikh religion and also in all Sikh institutions.

Khan has been shooting in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar for the Hindi film ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’.