NEW HAVEN (NNN-Bernama) -- Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan was detained at a New York airport for over two hours by immigration officials after arriving from India in a private plane to address students at the Yale University here on Thursday.
Khan was given immigration clearance two hours later after intervention by the Indian Consulate General (CGI), sources told the Press Trust of India.
The US Customs and Border Protection authorities followed up later with a letter expressing "profound" apology.
The 46-year-old actor, who landed at White Plains Airport at around 12:45 in the afternoon, was to address a press conference at 2 pm and deliver his lecture at 4 pm at the Yale University.
However, he arrived for the press-meet three hours behind schedule and his hour-long lecture started only at about 6 pm.
"Whenever I start feeling too arrogant about myself I always take a trip to America. The immigration guys kicked the star out of stardom," Khan said when addressing students at the University later.
According to sources, Yale University officials contacted and spoke with officials at the Department of Homeland Security and Department of US Immigration and Customs in Washington.
They said that Khan was "very very upset" by the incident and it "took time for the university officials to make him comfortable again."
The actor, who flew back to India last night, had visited Connecticut-based Yale University, which had conferred him with its prestigious Chubb fellowship.
As part of the fellowship, Khan addressed a gathering of hundreds of Yale students, parents, faculty and other members of the Indian-American community at the Yale campus.
Khan said this was not the first time he had been detained at an airport in the country and this has happened to him "three to four times before."
The most recent one was in 2009 when Khan was detained at the Newark Airport in New Jersey.
Khan had said at the time he was detained for nearly two hours at the airport "because of his last name".
Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has asked Ambassador Nirupama Rao to take up the matter with the highest US authorities.
"A repeated problem for the same person followed by clearance on account of the Consulate's intervention and a mechanical apology is not adequate," sources from the Ministry said.
According to sources, the letter from the immigration department said that the actor's name was flagged in the system and that airport staff required the approval of senior authorities to clear him. -- NNN-BERNAMA
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