London and Mumbai, Sept. 15 :    London and Mumbai, Sept. 15:  The terrorist attacks have halted Asoka in its steps in the US, the Bollywood blockbuster Shah Rukh Khan is betting his future on. The megastar, on a tour of the US and Canada with his film, got caught up in the chaos of New York after he arrived with wife Gauri and son Aryan two days before the terrorists razed the World Trade Center towers with hijacked commercial jets. Grounded in New York because of flight cancellations, the actor had to cancel the launch of the soundtrack of Asoka in London. He was supposed to have been present for a news conference and launch of the music on Monday but the organisers, Sony Music, called off the launch last evening as it became clear that he would not be able to make it. The actor was at a Manhattan hotel when the jets rammed into the twin towers, clouding the New York skyline and Asoka's future in that country. He could not believe this had happened. 'It was shocking. We were just a few blocks from the World Trade Center and saw from the hotel window the billowing smoke and dust engulfing the sky. I felt as if I was watching a movie,' Shah Rukh told his friend Mushtaq Sheikh over phone from New York. 'But this was real and this made the situation surreal.' During his stay in the US, Shah Rukh had plans to meet Steven Spielberg, but it fell through after the terrorist strikes. 'I know it sounds selfish, but just see how this has hit Asoka and us. First, I could not send the film's print to Toronto because all flights were cancelled. Finally, the festival (of films where Asoka was supposed to be screened) was cancelled,' Shah Rukh said. Despite the setback, Mustaq said the film would be released on September 26 as scheduled. He said the actor arrived in Toronto today and was waiting for a flight home. The Khans are expected to return to Mumbai on Monday. In statement sent to London about his role in the film, Shah Rukh describes Asoka as a name that has been embedded in his mind since childhood. 'Every Indian child knows Asoka,' he said. 'His wheel is on our flag, his seal is on our currency and his name echoes in our history and culture. That is all I knew of this great Mauryan King.' Khan says director Santosh Sivan has played on the early life of Asoka of whom little is known before his conversion to Buddhism. 'He has taken a true historical subject, added his spice and has come up with one of the best fairytales ever to be made in Indian cinema.' 'Today I can proudly say, I know Asoka. I saw Asoka at a personal level. I have not just acted in the film, I have lived the life of the legend Asoka.' Ironically, Khan plays the role of the emperor who was converted to Buddhism after he was witness to the carnage and loss of lives in the battle of Kalinga. The coincidence doesn't end there. Some time ago, the Taliban kicked up a controversy by destroying the twin gigantic 53-metre high and 1,500-year-old Bamiyan Buddha statues sculpted into a mountainside. Emperor Asoka had introduced Buddhism in Afghanistan in the third century B.C.