London crowds throng as SRK joins Bachchans for 'Raavan' premiere

London, June 17 (IANS) Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan joined the Bachchan family here for the world premiere of Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai starrer "Raavan", pulling in huge crowds that wanted to see Big B and King Khan together.

Hundreds of fans Wednesday night thronged the British Film Institute in London's Southbank for the premiere, but more to catch a glimpse of Amitabh Bachchan with Shah Rukh, the two leading stars of the Hindi film industry who have sometimes been dubbed as rivals.

Directed by Mani Ratnam, "Raavan" is a Hindi-Tamil bilingual and also stars Tamil superstar Vikram, who makes his Bollywood debut with the Hindi version. A co-production of Reliance BIG Pictures and Madras Talkies, the film will Friday hit about 2,200 screens worldwide.

On Sunday, Amitabh tweeted, "Shah Rukh, Abhishek probably spoke to you about the London premiere of 'Raavan', see you, Gauri and the kids there. Good that you are coming."

Shah Rukh is here to shoot for his home production "Ra One".

Overwhelmed with the response here, Abhishek, 34, who is playing a negative role in "Raavan", told journalists: "It's wonderful. Look at the reception we've got. We are feeling on top of the world and so happy that we came to London to premiere the film."

In the Hindi version, Aishwarya plays Ragini, a dance teacher who is married to a cop, played by Vikram. In the course of events, she is abducted by Beera (Abhishek) and held hostage at his jungle hideout.

The Tamil version is titled "Raavanan" and Vikram plays the antagonist Beera in it, while Prithviraj will be seen as Aishwarya's cop husband. Click the Movie button below for more info:
Raavan