Raees: Shah Rukh Khan Takes Mumbai-Delhi Train. Gets Massive Send-Off

Shah Rukh Khan is on the train to Delhi, after an agonizing few minutes before the August Kranti Express pulled out of Mumbai Central and it seemed like the famously tardy star wasn't going to make it. The 51-year-old actor is making the journey back to his hometown to promote his new film Raees, repeating in reverse one that he made 25 years ago when he first went to Mumbai to make it big. The August Kranti Express leaves Mumbai Central at 5.40pm - Monday it set off just a couple of minutes late and SRK made it by the skin off his teeth, with just three minutes to go. Before leaving his Bandra home Mannat for the station, SRK told the press, "I was so excited and nervous because I was going to travel by train after a very long time, apart from one time with my kids." On the crowded and chaotic platform, waiting for the superstar to show up, it was we who were nervous.

Unsurprisingly, there was pandemonium on the platform. A massive crowd gave SRK a blockbuster send-off, cheering and shouting his name. He arrived escorted by security and boarded as the crowd chanted 'Shah Rukh, Shah Rukh.'And just when we thought he was going to miss the train, there SRK was. Time, tide and trains wait for no man. Even Shah Rukh Khan, it seems, has to stick to the timetable.
 
Safe journey, SRK.
 
The 18-hour journey will terminate at New Delhi's Nizamuddin station Tuesday morning. On the way, SRK alights at the stops to interact with waiting fans. In Wapi, he received a royal welcome, with crowds three rows thick pushing forward to see him. SRK waved at his delighted fans and also managed to distribute gifts. His other stops - Surat, Bharuch, Baroda, Ratlam, Kota, Sawai Madhopur and Mathura.

When he lived in Delhi as a young man, SRK used to travel by train all the time, he said. "I have some nice memories which I cherish. I went to Agra on a train from my first salary. I have also told this story before that when the train enters Mumbai it gets converted into a local and one can't take a single birth per person. So the passengers scolded us. When I was Delhi then I used to travel by train very often and of course also in DDLJ."

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge featured a climactic scene in which Kajol's character sprints down the platfrom toward SRK's character, who is on a train that is leaving the station. Asked if he had known the train scene would become so iconic, Shah Rukh Khan said, "We had very little time and we were running. I had no idea that this scene would become iconic."

Rahul Dholakia and Ritesh Sidhwani, the director and producer of Raees, are travelling with SRK. The film, opening on Wednesday, stars Shah Rukh Khan as Raees Alam, a boot-legger in 1980s Gujarat, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Pakistani actress Mahira Khan co-star.