Mumbai, Dec. 9 (AP): Shah Rukh Khan wept at a recent movie preview. It wasn’t because the film was a tearjerker. He cried for Mumbai’s shattered sense of security after militants laid waste to it in a bloody three-day attack.

The suspected Muslim militants “are trying to snatch away what normal people do,” said Khan, who has found himself in the sometimes-awkward position of promoting a new comedy in a city reeling from the tragedy.

“It’s small pleasures of just eating out and having a chat with your wife or your friend, of normal things like going out for a drink or a coffee or catching a movie,” Khan said in an interview.

He said he has no sympathy for those whose beliefs turn them to violence. Mumbai’s sense of normalcy “has been snatched away, and for what? For defending things they don’t know fully well, for religions they don’t understand and are insecure about”.

Still, Khan hopes his new film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi to be released on Friday will make people smile. It is Bollywood’s first big release since the Mumbai attacks on November 26 that killed 171 people.

“The movie is funny. But when I watched it, I cried and I laughed and I cried because I felt that by killing innocent, normal people, they (gunmen) are denying us the simple pleasures of life,” he said.

Mumbai’s residents have been hesitant to pack movie theatres or restaurants after the attacks.

The nation watched on television as the tragedy played out for 60 hours before India’s elite commandoes killed nine gunmen and captured one militant, ending a siege of two hotels and a Jewish center.

Khan said he and the film’s director, Aditya Chopra, initially were not going to promote their new movie because “it just wasn’t right”.

“I didn’t feel like saying ‘Go watch a film’ when people had died. What about the thousands who are affected?” said the actor, seated in a spacious suburban office with expansive windows overlooking the Arabian Sea.

But like many of Mumbai’s residents, who rode trains to work soon after the attacks to get on with their lives, Khan said people need a reason to smile.

“I can’t tell people it will get you out of your sadness, but I can assure you that the two hours and 20 minutes is going to be great fun,” he said.

In the new romantic flick, Khan plays Suri, a quiet, bespectacled small-town man in a 9-5 job who transforms himself into a hip-swiveling heartbreaker to win a small-time dance competition and the affections of his lady love.

“The hero in this film is not awesome, not someone you want to be. The hero in this film is ordinary like you and me,” said the 43-year-old Khan. “It’s entertaining and very funny and we’re hoping to make people smile a little and go back with some nice, good thoughts.”