Dubai: Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan was detained at New York airport for two hours on Thursday as he arrived to visit Yale University, Indian news agencies reported.
Khan along with top industrialist's daughter Nita Ambani, a student at Yale University, arrived at the New York's White Plain airport on a private plane.
According to reports, Khan was stopped for over two hours before being cleared by the immigration officials.
Khan's plane landed in New York at 12:30pm but he didn't make it to Yale till 6pm, two hours late for his scheduled speech.
When he finally did address the students at Yale, which is three hours from New York, Khan said: "We were detained at the airport as always. For one-and-a-half hours. It was nice. It always happens when I come to America. Whenever I start feeling too arrogant about myself I take a trip to America."
According to reports, "Khan was very, very upset. Yale University officials had to contact the Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Department at Washington, when they came to know about his detention."
This is not the first time Khan has been stopped at an American airport. In 2009, he was stopped at the Newark airport and was released after a two-hour grilling.
Shailaja Gupta, who is the US head of Khan's production house Red Chillies Entertainment, said he was expecting to be stopped this time as well and that he answered all the questions with grace and patience. She also said that the airport officials recognized him but continued with the questioning.
Minister of External Affairs S M Krishna has asked India's Ambassador to the US, Nirupama Rao, to take up the issue with the highest US authorities. He said: "This has become a habit of detention and apology, which cannot continue."
Immediately after the incident, the US Customs and Border Protection wrote a letter to India's New York Mission with "profound" apologies for the incident.
