King of Bollywood

Dreams come true in Dalton. The small, unimposing

town in Georgia, mostly known as the carpet capital of the world, is a setting for miracles. Bhavesh

Sheth knows that.

Bhavesh, a portly, spectacled man with curly hair and

an eager manner, stands out in Dalton. He is among the

handful of Indians living there; only 2 percent of the town’s

27,912 residents are Asian. Many of these are doctors, but

Bhavesh is in the motel business. His father, Ramesh, runs a

Super 8 Motel located near the Dalton Convention Center.

It is a family business. Ramesh is the general manager and

Bhavesh the assistant manager. Their wives also help to

manage the two-star, 102-unit motel.

Bhavesh has never lived in India. His father emigrated in

the early 1970s, and Bhavesh was born in Canada in 1974.

Ramesh went where there was work. Bhavesh grew up in

Detroit, Houston, and Tennessee. He visited India with his

parents when money and time permitted. But in 1999, in

2 King of Bollywood

accordance with his parents’ wishes, Bhavesh had an arranged marriage with Tejal, a girl born and brought up in

Gujarat.

Like millions of Indians across the world, Bhavesh connected with India through Hindi fi lms. His parents watched

them regularly, usually on video. The grainy pirated prints

couldn’t take away from the power of these fantasies. Each

time Amitabh Bachchan died artfully on-screen, Bhavesh,

only nine, wept copious tears. Ramesh assured him that India’s

most enduring superstar was only “faking it.” As he grew older,

Bhavesh continued to watch Hindi fi lms avidly. Tejal was also

a fan. Their son Kishan, born in 2002, was seduced by songand-dance before he could talk. So when Temptation 2004,

a Bollywood rock concert performed by some of Mumbai’s

leading actors, came to the Gwinnett Center in Atlanta, there

was little choice. Bhavesh cashed in his birthday and marriage

anniversary gifts and bought tickets at $150 each. By the time

he called, the best seats at $200 were already sold out.

Temptation was a typically Bollywood blend of actors lipsynching popular songs and dance performances interspersed

with comedy routines and fan interactions. It featured six leading stars, each enacting a different temptation. The biggest

draw was superstar Shah Rukh Khan. The two-month-long

tour was sold out in sixteen cities across Europe, the United

Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. Each venue, with

seating ranging from 7,000 to 20,000, was packed. The most

expensive tickets were between $300 and $400, but the steep

prices did not deter fans. In Toronto, so many people were

turned away from the gargantuan Air Canada Centre, which

seats 19,800, that a second show had to be organized three

days later. In London, two shows were done back to back. In

Antwerp, the hall was packed with immigrants. These were

Bollywood Dreams 3

Indians who had immigrated to Holland via its erstwhile colony Suriname, where Indians were shipped between 1873 and

1916 as indentured labor. Being several generations removed

from India had not diminished their passion for Bollywood.

It was, as fi lmmaker Nasreen Munni Kabir documented

in her fi lm The Outer World of Shah Rukh Khan, Elvis-level

hysteria. Fans speaking in thick American accents kept vigil

in hotel lobbies at 2 a.m. to catch a glimpse of their favorite

star. At the shows, weeping girls screamed, “We love you,

Shah Rukh Khan!” Local organizers said they were refusing

$2,000 offers for backstage passes. Time magazine’s Asian

edition, which featured Shah Rukh on the cover of the Asia’s

Heroes special issue the following month, reported that Shah

Rukh’s bodyguard, a burly bald man with two teenage daughters, had so many offers of sex in exchange for access that it

had become “disturbing” for him.

On September 3, 13,000 people fi lled the cavernous arena

at Gwinnett Center to capacity. Bhavesh, Tejal, Kishan, and

Bhavesh’s brother Rupesh drove in from Dalton. Bhavesh

was carrying a printout from Yahoo! Maps in his pocket.

When Tejal asked him why he was holding on to the piece of

paper, Bhavesh replied, “You never know. I might go onstage

and meet Shah Rukh Khan. Then I’ll get an autograph for

Kishan.” A week before the concert, Bhavesh had told Tejal

that he had a dream that he was dancing onstage with Shah

Rukh. Tejal had laughed and remarked that there was no

way that was going to happen.

They were seated twelve rows away from the stage. As part

of the act, Shah Rukh selected two audience members to do

a routine with him. A girl who had won a raffl e contest was

called fi rst. Then Shah Rukh announced that he was looking

for a man who could dance. Something came over Bhavesh.