“My name is khan and I am not a terrorist” – the statement made by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan in the movie “My Name is Khan” has made him an icon of religious unity across the world.
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His positive portrayal in the film has made him the main personality to discuss about at a three-day conference at Vienna University aptly titled, 'Shah Rukh Khan and Global Bollywood'.

Some 40 speakers from universities around the world will discuss from Thursday on topics revolving around Shah Rukh who is billed as a global cultural phenomenon.

Though the star will not be able to attend the meet owing to his upcoming movie ‘Ra.One’, he was humbled by the endeavor.

Professor Elke Mader, Dean Cultural and Social Anthropology Institute of Vienna University, said his films have developed a cult media in German-speaking sphere and a very active fan-following. Khan's capacity to negotiate and to integrate opposites and extremes and to connect with diverse audiences worldwide as well as his art of expressing emotions make him an apt figure "in times of global mediascapes and cultural flows."



The actor has played both Hindu – Muslim characters on the screen. A great fan of Muhammad Yusuf Khan or Dilip Kumar, a star in the 1950s. But unlike Dilip Kumar who had adopted a Hindu screen name and in his 40-year film career, played a Muslim character only once, the modern Khan retained his Muslim name and also played all the characters with ease.

In his hit film Veer Zaara, Khan plays Veer Pratap Singh, an Indian Air Force pilot, who rescues a Pakistani woman, Zaara Haayat.

In the movie “ My name is khan”, the actor proved the intensity of secularism. In all his interviews the actor refers to himself as the "successful poster boy of India’s experiment with secularism."

Coming to the conference, London-based filmmaker Nasreen Munni Kabir will inaugurate it with her paper on 'The Worlds of Shah Rukh Khan' at the venue which is the 19th century building -- Vienna's Museum of Ethnology, near the imperial palace. Kabir had, in fact, produced a documentary titled 'The Inner and the Outer World of Shah Rukh Khan' in 2004.

Adelheid Hermann-Pfandt, professor of Religious Studies at Germany's University of Marburg will talk about the importance of a public role model like Shah Rukh in the promotion of ideas of unity among human beings within India and abroad. According to him, he first "experienced the inter-religious oneness of god" through a Shah Rukh film.

In addition, the conference will include two screenings - 'Kesariy Balam', Austria's first Bollywood style film directed by Sandeep Kumar and 'Mr Khan, Vienna Loves You', a documentary on hardcore Shah Rukh fans in Vienna by Ali Hasnain, a 24-year-old graduate of Vienna's School for Audio Engineering.

Anna Mandel, a German sculpture and painter, will exhibit from her work titled "Sentiment-SRK", an on-going project that includes the painting of 108 faces of the superstar.

During the conference, an exhibition will display some memorabilia collected over time by an ardent Shah Rukh fan Maria-Stella Hinterndorfer.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/66420/20100928/srk-religious-unity-vienna-conference.htm