Shahrukh Khan visit the Chennai Express press screening

 While Shahrukh Khan is known for arriving late for media events, the scenario at the Chennai Express press screening held last night at a suburban multiplex was quite different and almost unbelievable! This time, instead of wasting the media’s time, the Baadshah decided to devotea couple of minutes to his friends from the press who were watching his much talked-about Rohit Shetty directorial. We hear that the superstar, Rohit Shetty, Deepika Padukone and Nikitin Dheer, who were waiting outside the theatre were nervous about the media response.

The CE makers had arranged two shows last evening at the same multiplex – one strictly for the editors of various channels and publications and the other for the general media. And Shahrukh, Rohit, Deepika and Nikitin preferred to wait for the latter to end. Our khabroo told us that the CE team enthusiastically greeted the media and had an informal chat with each person present.

“It was unusual to see at the press show. He hasn’t done this for years – be it for his friend Karan Johar or for Yash Chopra. The way Shahrukh interacted with the media had people wondering whether he and the makers weren’t sure about or happy with their product and so they attended to the media to gauge their response. Something similar happened with Hrithik Roshan. He’s also not really known to attend press screenings, but he came for Kites,” says our friend, who didn’t enjoy the Rohit-SRK film very much, unfortunately. “Generally we only see smaller stars attending press screenings and interacting with the media. But Shahrukh was a pleasant surprise!”

Popularly known as the ‘Rs 100 crore director’, Shetty has said repeatedly that his films aren’t for critics, but for the audience. But after watching the director’s latest romcom, a popular critic said: “Chennai Express surely isn’t for critics or for anything that breathes and has a brain