Edinburgh, Oct. 16: Shah Rukh Khan was guest of honour at a dinner last night in Edinburgh where some of the city's leading academic, political and civic figures were present.

"He was very gracious, he came to every table and shook everyone by the hand," said Bashabi Fraser, who explained why Edinburgh University had conferred an honorary degree on the Bollywood star.

"He must have been very, very tired but he stayed and talked to everyone," added Bashabi, a long-time resident of Edinburgh who wears several hats including professor of literature and creative writing and joint director of the Scottish Centre of Tagore Studies.

"I think Shah Rukh is a very good role model for young people," Bashabi went on. "He's a secular actor, he's done a lot in raising women's profile and he is known for his philanthropic work."

Edinburgh similarly honoured the late former President of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, last year. It is understood there is a plan to establish a scholarship in his name. The university, possibly the most prestigious in the UK after Oxford and Cambridge, hopes giving an honour to Shah Rukh will help in strengthening its already close relations with India.

"In every way, it was a good decision," declared Bashabi, who intends spending six months in Calcutta working on a biography of Tagore as well as a book "on Tagore the internationalist".

It is a word she uses to describe Shah Rukh as well. "He is equally popular in India and in Pakistan - we need more people like him. He is a good ambassador for Edinburgh University."

The day started with Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, who is chancellor of the university, conferring "the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa" on the Bollywood star.

The citation said he was getting the honorary degree "in recognition of his outstanding record of philanthropy, altruism and humanitarianism and his global reach as an actor".

The university said his "charitable work has included bringing solar power to rural villages in India, creating a children's ward at a Mumbai hospital and supporting relief funds to assist areas devastated by tsunamis".

"I can hardly pronounce 'Honoris Causa'," joked Shah Rukh at a news conference, where he sat next to a Bollywood poster got up by VisitScotland, the country's tourism promotion organisation.

While the university is hoping for closer academic ties with India - generations of Bengalis have studied medicine at Edinburgh -the film and tourism industries are hoping Shah Rukh will bring in more trade.

This much was clear from the line of questioning adopted by Scottish journalists at Shah Rukh's news conference.

He was asked: how does the Scottish film industry become as big as Bollywood? And how can Bollywood be encouraged to shoot more films in Scotland?

Scotland needed to have a system of stars who would remain at home and not depart for Hollywood at the first signs of success, he suggested. "Unless there is a local star system of directors and producers and actors and actresses the interest level in making films falls down - and you see that all over the world. Wherever there is a star system in the film industry, the film industry thrives."

"The reason why India has survived is because our local audience is big enough for actors not to have to move out - you make a film outside (India) and come back," he said. "Unless a lot of films are shot in a place you can't really improve the lot of film making in a country.

"This is the way audiences are attracted," argued Shah Rukh.

He recalled a song Kuch Kuch Hota Hai being filmed in the Highlands. "It is one of the most famous songs I have done in the last 20 years."

"Normally, we went to Switzerland but this (location in Scotland) was a very pretty place - of course, Mr Sean Connery comes from Scotland," Shah Rukh threw in. "Ten days ago, I was with Karan Johar and told him I was coming to Edinburgh and he said we should go to Scotland again."

"It is an amazing place to come and shoot - not just from India but from all over the world. I would like to come and shoot here, for sure."

Asked how he felt about being popular in Pakistan as well, his response was philosophical: "My hope is that art does not belong to a region. When you hear a singer or a performer or sportsperson, they belong to the world."

At yesterday's lecture, where Shah Rukh offered home-spun wisdom extracted from a variety of his movies, VisitScotland left a copy of BollywoodScotland on every chair.

This folded colour leaflet is almost a scholarly piece of work which has examined the deep bonds between Bollywood and Scotland in riveting detail.

It lists the Hindi movies that have been shot in Scotland in recent years and the locations that were used.

For example, Main Solah Baras Ki, directed by the late Dev Anand in 1998 and starring who else but Dev Anand in the lead role, used a number of locations including Edinburgh Castle, Forth Bridge, Aberdeen, Fort William and Crieff city centres, Glen Coe, and Loch Ness.

Another section begins: "Romantic Scotland and the romance of Bollywood: the perfect match".

Bollywood Extra states "Since 1998 over 20 Bollywood movies have been shot in Scotland."

At yesterday's lecture, the literature was not getting a second look, not with Shah Rukh there, introduced by the vice-principal (international) as "the world's biggest movie star" (according to the LA Times, anyway).

It fell to Shah Rukh to instruct his excitable young audience on his 10 lessons of life. By a curious coincidence, they were to be found in 10 movies starring Shah Rukh.

The lesson in Dewaana (1992) was that "life is the miracle you are seeking"; and that in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) was "stop whining and get a move on". The lesson in Dil Se (1998) was: "There might not be an after-life, so why take a chance?"

The implied message, according to Dr Khan, was: "Love me".

Female SRK scholars were obviously following the lessons very closely for hundreds screamed back: "Love me".