Shah Rukh Khan enthralls fans in Kolkata

Overwhelmed by the turnout while promoting his forthcoming movie 'Chennai Express', Shah Rukh Khan gushed about not wanting to leave his "favourite city".

Shah Rukh Khan

"I love you Kolkata... I mean this is extremely overwhelming. I tour the whole country for my films but when I come here, you need to pass a law here that you adopt me and keep me here. I don't want to go from here," he said at an event.

Thousands of fans braved the monsoons to get a glimpse of the Badshaah of Bollywood as strains of Shah Rukh's hits like 'Chaiyyan Chaiyyan' revved up the energy level of the crowd.

As part-owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders, the actor has a huge following in the city.

"Thank you for supporting the cricket team," said Shah Rukh as he elapsed in to the team's anthem 'Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo'.

As King Khan waved and threw bouquets amid the throng, there was a mad scramble to pick up the flowers, prompting SRK to say "be careful, don't fight."

A star-struck crowd ogled at the star, as he enlivened legions of fans by dancing to 'Chennai Express' hit number 'One two three four!', dressed in a dark grey shirt and black vest with the customary hat that he dons in the movie.

Praising city-based dance group Crescendo for their performance, Shah Rukh stated that the youngsters performed "even better" than what the actor did in the film.

He also mesmerised the audience by repeating popular dialogues from his films 'Devdas', 'Don 2', 'Om Shanti Om' among others.

Wooing denizens with the popular phrase from 'Chennai Express', "Dont underestimate the power of the common man", SRK jazzed up the atmosphere further by distributing hats among the spectators.

Defending Kolkata in the wake of the rising incidents of crime against women in the city, Shah Rukh said not only Kolkata, but the whole world had issues when it came to the safety of women.

Khan, who is the state's brand ambassador, came to his "favourite" city's rescue by pointing out that safety of women is a global concern, "This is very personal. You can't pick on a city because it's easiest to blame the system. The whole country, the whole world actually has issues as far as safety of women is concerned."

The star also stressed the need to teach children to respect women.

"We can always turn around and say that it's sad, but I think the younger people, and I feel I am young, we must change the concept of how we bring up our children at home. The thing is the mentality of not telling the boys how to be gentle, and good and respectful. So I have started doing that," Khan said.

"When I talk to my son about girls, I don't talk about girlfriends. I tell him, 'Don't break a girl's heart, treat it gently and there is no way that you can look at an atrocity done on a women and if you do that you will not be forgiven by your father and mother'. So we should start from there," Khan said.

Downplaying the issue of surrogacy and his new born, SRK cleared the air by stating, "I didn't do it to promote surrogacy in the country. I did it to have a baby. I don't know how to explain that."

Directed by Rohit Shetty, 'Chennai Express' is slated for an August 9 release. It stars Deepika Padukone as the lead actress.