The 45-year-old star’s new wax figure was unveiled amid colourful dance performance by Bollywood Axion Dance Troupe that performed to the soundtrack from his latest film ‘My Name Is Khan’ with the waxwork behind them. The actor already has a statue at Tussauds in London and his latest wax figure is dressed in a sleek black suit and white shirt.
The event also marked the release of the DVD for ‘My Name is Khan’. The movie centres around an Indian Muslim man with Asperger’s Syndrome, who falls for Mandira, a successful Hindu single mother, played by Kajol, and how their lives are impacted by 9/11. Soon after the unveiling visitors and tourists began to get their picture clicked with him.
“More and more people are seeing Bollywood as part of the mainstream,” Rosemary del Prado, director of marketing at Madame Tussauds, said. “It represents his current style,” she said, pointing out the button down vest and the blazer zipper.
Khan stands in a small room on the 9th floor and is the second waxwork to enter the Bollywood Zone at the Madame Tussauds in New York after Amitabh Bachchan was introduced last year. The London branch also has a wax statue of Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai. Khan, who was named one of Newsweek’s ’50 Most Powerful People in the World’ in 2008, has a fan following in the billions.
Khan and Kajol became the first Bollywood stars to ring the NASDAQ bell for Fox Searchlight Pictures, the distributors of the film. One of the reasons for Khan’s inclusion in the New York facility was due to public requests, according to del Prado. “We make these decisions based on out guest feedback,” she said. “And the population around NYC are familiar with Bollywood.”
In the room next to where Khan was unveiled, there is an exhibition of presidents of the United States and world leaders, which include Mahatma Gandhi, Fidel Castro, Helen Keller, Martin Luther King Jr., Yasser Arafat and Napoleon.
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