When stars were suspect on foreign shores

When Shah Rukh Khan was detained at Newark airport in the United States early Saturday morning, it raised quite a storm in India. The superstar was released after two hours of grilling.

But this has not been the first time that an Indian superstar was detained on foreign shores.

Earlier this year, in May, Malayalam superstar Mammootty had to undergo a special check at New York's John Fitzgerald Kennedy airport. Immigration officials delayed his exit for almost two hours because of his name on his passport: Muhammad Kutty Ismail.

Mammootty, however, was generous enough to say that he did not feel discriminated against, and that laws needed to be obeyed.

Neil Nitin Mukesh had a run-in with immigration officials in the US when they stopped him at the airport, as he looked too fair to be an Indian.

It was only when Neil asked the officials to google his name on the internet and see that he was an actor that they believed him and let him go.

His detention experience came useful to him when he was filming Kabir Khan's New York, where his character is wrongfully detained as well.

Interestingly, Neil's New York co-star John Abraham was also detained at the New York airport.

Apparently, the FBI detained Jon because he had Afghanistan stamped on his passport. The actor had visited the country to shoot his critically-favoured film, Kabul Express.

Way back in 2002, Kamal Haasan was prevented from boarding a flight in Toronto to Los Angeles because his name sounded Islamic. The actor was not even allowed to make any phone calls, and instead was grilled ceaselessly.

The actor had been in the city shooting his Tamil comedy, Panchatantram.

In 2005, Vijay Raaz was detained in Dubai on drug charges. He was released after nine days when a urine examination proved tested him negative for drugs.

The actor had gone to Dubai for the shooting of Vikram Bhatt's Deewane Hue Paagal.