A constable lathicharges a Shah Rukh fan outside P&M Mall in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh n See Metro

Patna, Dec. 13: Bollywood’s Don was working on his Bihari accent, but he didn’t require it, after all.

Shah Rukh Khan missed his date with Patna today, disappointing thousands of fans who had gathered outside the airport since morning and also at the P&M Mall where a promotional event was scheduled in the afternoon for the actor’s upcoming film, Don 2.

The restive fans pelted stones at the mall in the afternoon, forcing the police to carry out a lathicharge.

The fans were originally given to understand that the star’s visit had been called off owing to the murky weather conditions — no flights landed in the city till 1 in the afternoon — but reports later surfaced security and administrative problems may have also played a hand.

The fans though continued to wait at both sites, but what compounded the problem was the lack of information from the authorities.

The actor was to have reached the city in a chartered plane around 1.30pm and gone to the mall. Fans had begun thronging the airport since 9 in the morning. At the mall, some 15,000 people had gathered by 2 in the afternoon. “Though we announced Shah Rukh was not coming, no one was ready to believe it,” said Manoj Kumar Jha, the security manager at P&M Mall.

As their frustration grew by the hour, some of the youngsters began pelting stones at the police around 3pm. The police started wielding lathis to clear the crowd. This angered the fans, some of whom damaged vehicles parked outside and looted a van of a beverage company.

The police had to use water cannons as well to disperse the mob. At least two policemen suffered minor injuries.

A tweet from Shah Rukh, @iamsrk, in the evening suggested there may have been a security problem. “Was super excited with my first ever visit to Patna but distt authorities said sum security issue. Will come sum other time. Damn..!!!” the tweet, sent around 6pm, said.

Soon after the actor put out another tweet in which he expressed hope that the visit could materialise later. “Bags packed...plane ready...my bihari accent was also being worked upon. Feel awful couldn't make it...but insha Allah will go there soon.”

Spice Bhasha, a Mumbai-based public relations firm handling the visit, sent out a text message in the afternoon that Shah Rukh was not coming owing to the non-cooperation of the police and the local administration.

“Police and local administration prevent Shahrukh Khan from landing in Patna. We were ready to take off from Mumbai when the local administration said they will take action against the people who bring Shahrukh Khan to Patna. We apologise for the inconvenience,” a text message sent by a representative of Spice Bhasha said.

Ashish Shukla, the exhibition head of Cinepolis, the multiplex at the mall where the event was scheduled, refuted claims of any administrative hostility.

“All these are nothing but rumours. There is no question of any administrative problems. It was foggy weather in Patna and this is the reason why the star couldn’t come,” Shukla told The Telegraph.

But officials at Spice Bhasha said Shah Rukh couldn’t be in Patna due to administrative hiccups. “There was not much of a weather problem in Patna today and flights were landing. We were told by the administration about action owing to which the programme was cancelled,” Rukesh, a Spice Bhasha official, said from Mumbai.

Patna district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Singh refuted the allegations.

“We had a letter from Cinepolis regarding the event and security was absolutely intact. In the evening, another letter from Cinepolis came which said the actor couldn’t come due to bad weather conditions. All these allegations of administrative hiccups don’t hold any water,” he said.