Wankhede Stadium Shahrukh incident: Why was Shah Rukh Khan banned from entering Wankhede Stadium after IPL 2012?

Wankhede Stadium Shahrukh incident: Co-owner of IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) had lifted their maiden IPL title in 2012.

While a franchise T20 league’s popularity rests almost entirely on a few selected big superstars of the game, very few like a Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) has its fan base, courtesy of a certain Bollywood star actor Shah Rukh Khan.

Khan, who happens to be the co-owner of KKR, is one of the most respected name in the Bollywood industry, both as an actor and a person, with a fan base surpassing the country’s geographical boundary.

However, on a certain night of May 16, 2012, post the culmination of 65th match of the IPL that season, Khan got himself tangled in a rather ugly scuffle at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, which led to him facing a ban from entering the iconic venue.

Wankhede Stadium Shahrukh incident

Post KKR’s 32-run victory against Mumbai Indians (MI) in the match, Shah Rukh Khan got engaged in an aggressive scuffle, involving an alleged use of expletives directed at the security guards.

As per Khan, who was present at the stadium to pick up a large group of his children and their friends, he saw security guards physically manhandling them ‘in the name of security’.

A visibly angry Shah Rukh, then got himself involved in a brawl with the security officials, with the latter claiming that the Bollywood star was in fact drunk and even abused a woman present there. Both the claims were, however, later vehemently denied by Khan.

“I said a few things in anger. I was one and they were 20-25 officials and they were extremely rude. When I tried to answer them, they hid behind others,” the actor said. “There was nothing illegal, I was not on the pitch. I know the rules, exclaimed Khan after the incident.

Post the incident, the MCA (Mumbai Cricket Association) officials lodged a complaint against him at the Marine Drive police station.

Shah Rukh Khan gets banned from entering Wankhede Stadium for 5 years

As a result of the scuffle, the MCA banned the KKR co-owner from entering the stadium for a period of five years.

“The MCA managing committee is forced to ban Shah Rukh Khan from entering Wankhede Stadium for a period of five years,” Vilasrao Deshmukh, the MCA president, had said in Mumbai.

Khan served the ban faithfully until the MCA lifted it almost three years later in the year 2015.

The entire matter was officially closed only in 2019, after Mumbai police had also booked SRK under the Juvenile Justice Act for using expletives before children in the vicinity during the scuffle.

But, thanks to the metropolitan magistrate’s demand for want of further evidence, Khan’s case was finally closed.