My Name Is Khan for special kids

Actor Shah Rukh Khan skipped a screening of his film My Name Is Khan organised especially for a group of 40 to 50 special children, many of autistic, at a South Mumbai multiplex on Sunday evening in the wake of Saturday’s bomb blast in Pune. However, he sent his message for the children through his friend and director of the film Karan Johar. “If anybody tells you that you are different, tell them that’s why you can make a difference,” Johar told the kids, while reading out a text message from the actor howm he referred as “my brother Shah Rukh Khan”.

“I didn’t think it was right to celebrate my movie in the light of what happened yesterday,” his text message to the children read. “Maybe we can meet at some other fixed time.”

Various non-governmental organisations working for children with special needs accompanied the kids to the special screening at Inox theatre here. While Johar introduced the movie, he chose to steer clear of the recent controversy over the Shiv Sena’s agitation against the screening the film. Police security at various cinema halls across the city continued on Sunday as the movie ran to packed houses, though police presence was lower than that on Friday and Saturday.