The Barbers Association is feeling uneasy about the portrayal of their profession in Shah Rukh Khan’s new film Billu, “If there’s anything objectionable in the film, we can get it changed,” said Uday Takke, President of the Association, “If they don’t, the association members will take to the streets to protest against the film. There are 27000 association members in Mumbai and 3.5 lakh in Maharashtra.”
The film stars Irrfan Khan and Lara Dutta. Irrfan had undergone training from a professional barber for his role in the film. SRK is doing everything he can to appease the association even to the extent of blanking out the word ‘barber’ on posters for the movie in and around Mumbai. “We will put a piece of paper on the word ‘barber’ on the posters and hoardings which belong to the production which is Red Chillies, wherever it can be done,” explained SRK, “It’s a little expensive to try and change the posters which we couldn’t have done.”
For SRK, this is proving to be a difficult time. He is slated for surgery in a couple of weeks for a painful shoulder injury he had been carrying for some time. “For Shah Rukh, the last few months have been quite busy professionally,” said a source, “There was the Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi promotion as well as the shoot of Dulha Mil Gaya. Then he couldn’t back out of My Name is Khan, which had been brought forward by a few months. After that, he had to return to India for the publicity of Billu.”
