After the actor agreed to enter the Grévin in April 2007 and a four-hour meeting organised in London last July, the sculptor Stéphane Barret and the Grévin workshop team spent six months on the waxwork figure. Despite a hectic schedule, in between film making and his cricket team's matches, Shah Rukh Khan kept his promise and came to inaugurate his statue on April 28th.

We were told that French and European fans would be coming. We were told that the event would be unprecedented in the Grévin's history. And that is exactly what happened: on the morning of April 28th, hundreds of people got up early to give THE Superstar of the Indian movie industry the warmest of welcomes

The Indian Tour Leader Cox and Kings, the Office de Tourisme de Paris and the Maison de la France combined their efforts to support the event as did the Commission des Films d’Ile de France who organised transport in a limo for the actor from the Hôtel Meurice where he stayed.

He arrived at the Grévin with his wife Gauri, his friend Karan Johar the film maker, the actor Ritesh Desmukh, and was greeted by a shower of roses. He was welcomed by Béatrice de Reyniès, Managing Director of the Grévin and by H.E. Ranjan MATHAI, India's Ambassador to France.

"Love Us As We Love You", "Welcome to Paris" and "Thank You For Existing", was written on huge banners, hung from the barriers behind which hundreds of fans screamed their idol's name. Some had come from as far away as Germany or Poland.

At the ceremony in the Grévin Theatre, the young leader of a French fan club gave the actor a token of their admiration. She gave her idol a French national football team jersey on which was inscribed Zinedine Zidane's famous number "10", autographed by the player himself (Rachid Aouli for AP).

After the curtain was raised to the sound of a superb traditional Indian dance performed by the Indian Ocean Group, the star discovered his wax look-alike sculpted by Stéphane Barret and the Grévin workshop's team.

"I never dreamed I would become so famous that I would be here among all the celebrities", said the 42 year old actor in English, as he unveiled the wax figure. "I lost my parents when I was young and
I found a new family with you by playing, singing and dancing — not always all that well — and taking off my shirt, which I will continue to do", he went on to say, visibly moved, although "he doesn't like to cry in front of his children". (Rachid Aouli for AP).

The unexpected meeting between Shah Rukh Khan and Jean-Pierre Foucault did not go unnoticed.
The point they have in common (apart from both being in waxwork at the Grévin) is that they are both, one in India and the other in France, the star hosts of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire". Their meeting ended on a facetious note with Shah Rukh Khan saying "This is my final answer, Jean-Pierre" to our own Jean-Pierre Foucault.

And so the King of Bollywood is here with us at the Grévin, for the great pleasure of his fans from the world over who can finally approach him and imagine for a short while that their dream of meeting him has come true.

Inde-en-ligne treat the event here

More videos about the event here