King Khan Konquers Houston

By Vanshika Vipin

HOUSTON: After a decade, King Khan decides to tour North America and where does he begin? Sadda Houston. Houston got SLAMmed in a Bollywood Star Frenzy on Friday, September 19, at the Toyota Center. The galaxy of stars that shone up on Houston included Shah Rukh Khan, director Farah Khan, Boman Irani, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan, Sonu Sood, Malaika Arora Khan, Vivaan Shah and rapper-turned-actor Yo Yo Honey Singh. They arrived a couple of days before the show and spent their time rehearsing for the grand concert, after all Houston was their first stop in the 6 city tour as a part of promotion of the upcoming movie ‘Happy New Year’ scheduled to be released this Diwali.

This mega event was organized by Rajender Singh, the President and owner of Star Promotion Inc. Star Promotions is a popular event management company in Houston that has brought many spectacular shows over the years including Unforgettable in 2008 featuring the Bachchan Family and Madhuri Dixit, the South Asian carnival in 2009 which included Saif Ali Khan and Shah Rukh Khan and now SLAM.

Prior to the show, Rajender and the SLAM team held a press conference on Thursday, September 18. Emceed by Meena Datt, the hostess of Music of India and Ghungroo Radio, each star was introduced as they arrived on the podium. The Bollywood personalities were very friendly and patiently answered all queries from the attendees comprising of newspaper, radio and TV channel personnel. King Khan said, “I think more than just coming, performing, earning money and spreading what we do, what makes us proud is being able to serve the people who are staying away from home and doing so well. “It makes me feel very proud. It’s our way of saying thank you to everyone around the world, not just in the subcontinent for making us the stars that we are.”

The evening of the show saw long lines outside Toyota Center as people from far and wide were arriving to see their favorite stars in action. Once the show began, the audience was transported to a dream world as the gorgeous Deepika descended from top of the stage like an angel from heaven in a flowing white sequined outfit, perched on a flower ringed circle. Abhishek’s entry from up in the stands at the back of the auditorium, walking all the way down to the front had people hooting and cheering, and of course, crowding towards that aisle to get a closer glimpse of the star.  “Make some noise, people” seemed to be his go-to phrase. Abhishek also did a fabulous Marathi-esque dance with abundant vigorous moves and lighted lezhims for a disco effect. SRK amazed everyone with a Don-like entry – rising to about 30 feet from the center of the audience seated in the floor area, and then zip-lining slowly towards the stage, arms a-stretch, complete with studded leather jacket. Malaika was graceful and spoke really well and Yo Yo Honey Singh stole the show with his hip-hop/Bollywood songs. Vivaan Shah opened the show with a fast dance song. The English duo, Signature featuring Suleman Mirza and Madhu Singh, were also present and did a brief version of their Britain’s Got Talent act showcasing the fusion of Michael Jackson moves and Bhangra, complete with their signature “split end.”

Notable amongst the performances was the song from Dil Se – Satrangi Re – with SRK and Deepika which was sensual right from when they walked on stage with her straddling atop his right shoulder, poised perfectly. Icing on the cake was Shah Rukh doing the qawwali “Tumse Milke Dilka Jo Haal” from “Main Hoon Na”. Boman Irani as usual was funny and enjoyed dancing with Farah Khan to SRK Songs. Sonu Sood appeared with bare chested showing off his jaw dropping physique displaying a perfectly defined ‘six-pack’.

In his own inimitable style, Shah Rukh invited Tejal and Dhaval Patel of Irving, Tx to the stage – interacted with them and gifted them a Harley Davidson motorcycle, an autographed helmet and an autographed life size poster of himself. Every minute of the show was a moment to remember for almost the 9000 audiences present at Toyota center. After three and a half hours of non-stop entertainment, the full-of-life-star Shah Rukh Khan kept dancing with most gusto till the end of the show – he didn’t want to leave the stage. As the show ended, the stars threw stuffed animals, lungis and hats into the audience.

The show did have a few technical glitches but those can definitely be ignored. It had a nice multimedia presentation, great background visuals for each song / stage appearance, detailed lighting and laser arrangement and the most critical – a great sound system and arrangement to keep the audience entertained at all times, SLAM after all stands for Sound-Light-Action-Music.

Bollywood fans from all over the Lone Star State attended the show, as this was the only show in Southwest United States. Common audience reactions included “OMG, Shah Rukh is so hot” to “When will the show start” to “I wish I could touch Sonu’s abs” to “couldn’t have done a better job” to the ultimate desi compliment “Paisa Vasool”.

Rajender spoke to IAN in an exclusive interview, “I would like to thank everyone, especially the sponsors, media, my team, who worked really hard to put this show together, and everyone who came out to see the show and supported it. Also I would like to say that, if you want to see a high quality show, then you have to pay for it, compromising on the ticket price will mean compromising on the level of the show.” Rajender is open for suggestions from the audience as he feels that this will help him organize even better shows in the future. He can be reached on his cell at 281-222-4500.

For further details and for upcoming shows contact Rajender Singh at 281-222-4500 or visit www.starpromotioninc.com

Article contribution: Preanka Desai and Malay Vyas