The six-pack is a sex pack in Germany, and King Khan is cooler than the Pope in his fatherland. Agency reports from Berlin have been chronicling the reaction of a starry-eyed nation to Shah Rukh Khan, currently in Germany to promote Om Shanti Om at the Berlinale film festival.

In an article titled The Blockbuster of Bollywood (Google search auto-translation from the German), the tabloid Die Tageszeitung said SRK was as popular as the Pope, but had more sex appeal. German TV has been following SRK's visit intently, with channels airing info on his wife and kids as well.

The Die Tageszeitung article, by Ekkehard Knorer, said, "It may well be that at the moment in the whole world there is no one more dearly loved, venerated and idolized as the Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan... (There is) the Pope perhaps, but with all due respect, (he) has less charm and is also less sexy..."

Knorer went on to write about how SRK is different from the other men of Bollywood, and noted that he is not afraid to cry in his movies. He ended by announcing that tickets for OSO had been sold out in seven minutes flat.

The daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said many people from across Europe had descended on Berlin just to see Shah Rukh.

In his interactions with the media, King Khan defended Bollywood films.

"We do express ourselves a little loudly. We wanted people to know that our movies are like this and we're very proud of it," he was quoted as saying. He added he wanted to help remove some misconceptions about Indian films in the west. "I may be someone to bind Europe and India through films."