Newsweek review on Shah Rukh

Shah Rukh Khan have been ranked among the 50 most powerful people in the world by prestigious US-based mag- azine Newsweek in a list topped by US Pres- ident-elect Barack Obama. Pakistan army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is placed 20th on the list of the glob- al “power elite” in the magazine’s January 2009 issue. Obama is followed by Chinese President Hu Jintao, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Markel and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Placing Sonia Gandhi at 17th spot, the magazine says, “In the world’s largest democracy, she is the queen.” The magazine describes Shah Rukh Khan, who occupies 41st spot, as the ‘King of Bollywood’. “It’s not just that his (Shah Rukh Khan’s) romantic flicks make gazil- lions it’s where those gazillions come from. Khan is huge in the Muslim world, even in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the mul- lahs ban his films. (The movies thrive on the black market.)” “Their main appeal is certainly the song-and-dance numbers, but Khan makes devoutly secular films where love trounces bigotry,” the magazine says, adding that Sonia Gandhi gives Khan’s DVDs to visi- tors, especially Muslim. “Here’s hoping tolerance will leap from reel life to real life.”