NEW DELHI, April 13: The US on Friday apologised to Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan after he was stopped for an hour and a half by Homeland Security agents at a New York airport.

Khan was stopped after his flight landed at the airport in White Plains, NY, on Thursday. He was en route to deliver a lecture at Yale University.

He recounted the experience in the lecture which was delayed by several hours because of the incident.

“Whenever I start feeling too arrogant about myself, I always make a trip to America. The immigration guys kick the star out of stardom,” said Khan.

In a statement issued by the US Embassy, Spokesman Peter Vrooman apologised “for any inconvenience”.

India lodged a diplomatic complaint with the United States over the incident.

In 2009, the Indian cinema legend was detained for two hours at Newark airport in New York, suggesting then that he was singled out as a Muslim.

Reacting to the latest incident, India’s Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna said he had asked India’s ambassador to Washington to take up the issue with the US authorities.

A foreign ministry official in New Delhi said the ‘repeated’ targeting of Khan had to be more than coincidental. “A mechanical apology is not adequate,” said the official, who declined to be named. —Agencies