Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s name is among the 10,000 words that have been added into the Indian Sign Language (ISL) directory, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Some of the other words added are ‘Deaflympics’, ‘carpooling’, and ‘online banking’.
According to Times of India, the sign for Shah Rukh Khan's name consists of holding the fingers of one’s right hand like a gun and tapping twice about the heart.
Vice President of the All-India Federation of the Deaf Sunil Sahasrabudhe said, “When I was a deaf child, my special educators were not able to explain abstract philosophies because they never knew ISL. They used their spoken language to explain things that were abstract and they had found them challenging to teach.”
In 2018, the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Center (ISLRTC) launched the first edition of the Indian Sign Language dictionary with 3000 terms. Actors Salman Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, and Priyanka Chopra had reportedly been included in previous editions of the dictionary.
On the career front, Shah Rukh Khan will be seen in Sidharth Anand’s film Pathan, which is set to release in theatres in 2022. The film also stars Deepika Padukone and John Abraham.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)