Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan today promised to help the family one of his fans, who lost his life in the stampede at Vadodara station during ‘Raees’ promotion.
Expressing grief over the mishap, the 51-year-old actor called it “extremely unfortunate” and said that his prayers are with the family of the deceased.
Speaking to news agency ANI, the actor expressed grief at the incident and promised to aid the deceased’s family at per personal expense.
When asked why he opted to travel by train, the 51-year-old replied: “Wanted to cover all cities in minimum time, so decided to travel by train. Also, I had not travelled in Indian Railways since long.”
Farheed Khan Pathan, a local politician from Vadodara, died of cardiac arrest at the station after the crowd went berserk to get a glimpse of the superstar last night.
The deceased was the relative of a journalist, who was travelling in the same train, and came to meet her.
"One of our colleagues was traveling with us. Her uncle came down to see her at Vadodara. He suffered from a cardiac arrest. It was really unfortunate. We started the journey thinking we all will travel, spend time with each other when one of your own loses someone one on a trip like this, it saddens us all.
"On behalf of everyone, our prayers and blessings are with the whole family. She has reached there. I just spoke to her. I think the burial is in an hour or half hour. We have some of our people with the family members there. Hopefully God will bless her soon," Shah Rukh told reporters at the Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station here.
SRK's fans had gathered in large number at Vadodara station to watch their favourite star, who had boarded the train from Mumbai and was going to Delhi as part of the promotional campaign for his film.
The crowd went out of control when the train halted and some of them started banging window panes. Police had to resort to mild lathicharge to control the situation.
Cricketers Irrfan and Yusuf Pathan were also present at the Vadodara station to meet the superstar.
Despite the incident, massive crowd turned out at Ratlam and Kota stations. Policemen were deployed to control the fans.
The 51-year-old actor had boarded the train from Mumbai Central station for Delhi as part of his promotional campaign 'Raees by Rail'. He was accompanied by film's producer Ritesh Sidhwani, Sunny Leone and director Rahul Dholakia.
SRK will be seen playing the role of a gangster in "Raees", which also stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Pakistani actress Mahira Khan. It will release on January 25.The film will fight the box office battle with actor Hrithik Roshan’s ‘Kaabil’.
( With PTI Inputs)
