WATCH: I feel honoured to be on the moon, says Shah Rukh

With a lunar crater named after him by the International Lunar Geographic Society, actor Shah Rukh Khan says he feels honoured.

WATCH: SRK, Kajol's favourite song in My Name Is Khan

Both Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol find Tere Naina one of the favourite songs from their upcoming movie My Name Is Khan.

WATCH: Kajol on her role in My Name Is Khan

Actress Kajol says she has a meaty role to perform in Shah Rukh Khan starrer My Name Is Khan.

World's Biggest Star Shahrukh Khan on Moon

Star on Moon: Crater named after Shah Rukh Khan

Bollywood has finally made it to the moon. It is making its presence felt 4 lakh km away on the lunar surface in an area close to where the first men on the men, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, landed on July 20, 1969.

The International Lunar Geographic Society, a New York-based organization devoted to the study of the moon, has declared that a lunar crater in the moon's Sea of Tranquillity has been christened after Shah Rukh Khan. This has been approved by the International Astronomical Union, which has a final say with regard to the naming of craters on the moon. The crater ``has been given the honorary designation as the Crater S R Khan on the occasion of Mr Khan's 44th birthday'' on November 2, 2009, the society said.

According to the society, the crater was named following a deluge of petitions from Shah Rukh's admirers from India and around the world. Incidentally, one of his dedicated admirers has already presented him with a piece of the moon by buying him land there.

With a crater named after him, Shah Rukh now joins the ranks of eminent personalities like Nobel laureate C V Raman, father of the Indian space programme Vikram Sarabhai, father of the Indian nuclear programme Homi Bhabha and other luminaries like Meghnad Saha after whom craters have been named.

The decision has triggered a mixed response within the scientific community, with the father of the Indian moon mission Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan supporting it, but president of the National Space Society, Suresh Naik, describing it as ``shocking''. In another vein, a young schoolgirl commented, ``I think another crater on the moon should be named after Amitabh Bachchan, since he is also a great actor.''

Secretary of the Indian chapter of the Moon Society, Pradeep Mohandas, shared Kasturirangan's view. ``I think it is not a bad idea since it reflects the thinking of the new generation of young Indians,'' he said.

Kasturirangan told TOI on Sunday from New Delhi that Shah Rukh is extremely popular and a symbol of national pride.

``I do see a rationale behind this decision. He is a kind of ambassador for India and this reflects the way India views him,'' he said.

Shah Rukh's link with the space programme goes back to May 2001, when the last man who stood on the surface of the moon, Eugene A Cernan, during a visit to Mumbai invited the actor to Nasa's Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas. The actor sat in a model of the lunar vehicle which was brought over by Cernan. Shah Rukh acted in `Swades', the bulk of which was shot in Nasa's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

The S R Khan Crater is part of the Arago crater group, named for Francois Jean Dominique Arago, a Catalan-French mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician who lived from 1786 to 1853. It is the largest of the main Arago crater's four satellite craters and rests in the Sea of Tranquillity, directly south of the main crater.

SRK and I are not 16: Kajol

Kajol may be feeling too overworked having three releases this year but her fans are more than delighted. Her first film releasing this year is Karan Johar’s My Name is Khan opposite her DDLJ hero Shah Rukh Khan. “But this is not a cliched love story,” the actress tells BT about the film which has been tailor-made for her and SRK...

Karan Johar’s My Name is Khan, Kireet Khurana’s Toonpur Ka Superhero and Siddharth Malhotra’s Love You Maa (tentative title) you have three releases in 2010!
God, it is shocking, even scary sometimes. I didn’t realise that I have been working like a dog, which I swore never to do.

Expectations from MNIK are sky-high considering it has one of the best Bollywood screen couples — SRK and you?
As far as expectations go, you can never work for expectations. You have to work against them. My Name is Khan is a very special film. Karan, SRK and I have worked very hard to make it a good film. We’ve put in our hundred per cent and we hope everyone else thinks so too.

SRK said that when the two of you work together, you’ll invariably look out for each other as friends...
SRK and I have the kind of friendship where we do look out for each other. I’m glad we have that kind of friendship. Yes it is true that when we work together, he is concerned about my performance; and I’m concerned about his. We’re on the same level and we often tell each other, ‘Listen you can add this to what you’re doing,’ and vice versa. Our takes aren’t very different from each other.

Was Khan a more difficult film to make because it deals with sensitive issues like the Asperger’s syndrome and even some socially relevant ones?
MNIK is just a ‘more’ film, if you know what I mean. It is not a clichéd love story per se. SRK and I are not 16. So we’re not bubbly teenagers any more. We have progressed to another level and our performances and the film has been tailor-made for that level.

Aamir Khan, SRK, Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan... you’ve done films with the top grade Khan level; who’s next?
Oh God, my choice of film has never depended on the hero. In fact, you will see that some of my categorical mistakes had nothing to do with the hero in it. I think I’d like to continue doing good work. I’d like to do interesting scripts. No run-of-the-mill stuff for me. I also want to do films in my time. Just the thought that I have three releases coming up this year has tired me. I need a break really bad.

My Name Is Khan came to Niranjan Iyengar accidentally

My Name Is Khan is indisputably the most-awaited movie of the year. The music of the movie is already creating waves all-over especially ‘Sajda’ sung by the melodious Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Richa Sharma.

Nonetheless, the lyrical beauty of the song can’t be ignored either and due credit goes to Niranjan Iyengar who was recently appreciated for ‘Shukran Allah’ (Kurbaan). Another song titled 'Noor E Khuda’ has been penned down by this talented lyricist.

However, My Name Is Khan didn’t come easily in his kitty. Adds Niranjan, “I never gave a serious thought to the career as a lyricist. And My Name Is Khan fell in my kitty accidentally. I had written lyrics for My Name Is Khan much before Kurbaan.”

Niranjan goes on to add,” I used to have frequent discussions with Karan Johar over the lyrics. And one fine day KJO called me to write dummy lyrics for a song which turned out to be ‘Sajda’. The lyrics were liked by one and all and that’s when I was officially appointed as a lyricist.”