Prime TV’s Shah Rukh Khan event cancelled

Pakistani entertainment channel, Prime TV’s foray into events has had a setback after its first event featuring Shah Rukh Khan was cancelled in the last minute.

The channel had come under major scrutiny from pressure in India including the Shiv Sena party.

Last week, the party said it was “inappropriate” for the Bollywood star to be a part of the show (organised by a Pakistani channel) during a time when India had been observing the second anniversary of the 26/11 terrorist attacks.

Only on Friday, organisers of the gala dinner and dance, Prime TV was adamant that Shah Rukh Khan will be attending despite pressure from India.

Prime TV on the other hand said in a statement that the event was cancelled due to Shah Rukh Khan’s filming commitments in Berlin where he is shooting for ‘Don 2’, plus the poor weather conditions.

The statement said, “Mr. Khan�۪s office has further asked us to refund all tickets. On this basis as a first priority the organisers of this programme have started to fully refund all ticketholders even though Mr Shah Rukh Khan�۪s office is yet to provide funds to cover these costs. ��In relation to other stakeholders in this venture, our understanding from Mr Shah Rukh�۪s office is that all parties who have suffered a loss will be duly compensated for the losses they have incurred. We are awaiting funds from Mr Khan�۪s office in relation to such losses as well.”

The channel denied anything else that had been linked to the cancellation including the Indian political pressures and poor ticket sales. The statement continued, “While we very much regret the cancellation we are attempting to understand the reasons for this cancellation and will provide you further details as they become available to us. ��Mr Khan was dually contracted to appear in this performance and in this connection we would particularly like to deny reports appearing in the press in India which appeared to suggest that he had not undertaken to appear at such a performance in London. ��As a British Asian channel we take great pride in bringing cultural performances from across the sub-continent to our viewers and all our events are planned after close consultation with the stars concerned.”

Prime TV added that Shah Rukh Khan’s office said that they would be looking to now hold this performance in May 2011, therefore, the channel was giving ticketholders the option to hold the tickets for next year’s event.

The event was scheduled to take place at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge today.