Ar Rutbah (Arabic: الرطبة‎, also known as Rutba, Rutbah, or Ar Rutba) is an Iraqi town in western Al Anbar province. The population is approximately 55,000. It occupies a strategic location on the Amman-Baghdad road, and the Mosul–Haifa oil pipeline. Considered a "wet spot", it receives 114.3 mm (4.5 inches) of rain annually, and is located on a high plateau.

During British administration, Rutbah Wells, as it was then known, was a stopover for Imperial Airways on flights from Britain to India and the Gulf Region. Aircraft routed Cairo - Gaza - Rutbah Wells - Bagdhad. It was also a water stop on the overland drive from Baghdad to Damascus; travelers who stopped lodged in a fort. 16kilometers South off Rutbah (Rutbah Wells, in 1934), the famous aircraft, a winner off the MacRobertson Air Race the "Uiver" a DC-2 type from the KLM, now knows as Air France-KLM, crashed here on its first flight after the MacRobertson Air Race in December 1934 on its way to the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). There were six people dead, including Dominique Willem Berretty, a Dutch media magnate.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Punjabi: نصرت فتح علی خان (Shahmukhī)) (October 13, 1948 – August 16, 1997), a world-renowned Pakistani musician, was primarily a singer of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis (a mystical tradition within Islam). Considered one of the greatest singers ever recorded, he possessed a six-octave vocal range^{[citation needed]} and could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours. Extending the 600-year old Qawwali tradition of his family, Khan is widely credited with introducing Sufi music to international audiences. He was popularly known as "Shahenshah-e-Qawwali", meaning "The King of Kings of Qawwali".

Born in Faisalabad, Pakistan, Khan had his first public performance at age of 16, at his father's chelum. He officially became the head of the family qawwali party in 1971, and was signed by Oriental Star Agencies (OSA), Birmingham, U.K., in the early 1980s. In subsequent years, Khan released movie scores and albums for various labels in Pakistan, Europe, Japan and the U.S. He engaged in collaborations and experiments with Western artists, becoming a well-known world music artist in the process. He toured extensively, performing in over 40 countries.

Hrithik Roshan ([ˈrɪt̪ʰɪk ˈroːʃən]; born 10 January 1974) is an Indian film actor. Having appeared as a child actor in several films throughout the 1980s, Roshan made his film debut in a leading role in Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai in 2000. His performance in the film earned him Filmfare Awards for Best Actor and Best Male Debut. He followed it with leading roles in Fiza and Mission Kashmir (both 2000) and a supporting part in the blockbuster Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), which was India's highest-grossing film in the overseas market up to then.

Following through with several unnoticed performances from 2002 to 2003, he starred in the blockbusters Koi... Mil Gaya (2003) and its sequel Krrish (2006), both of which won him numerous Best Actor awards. Roshan received his third Filmfare Award for Best Actor in 2006 for his performance in the action film Dhoom 2, his biggest commercial success to date, and his fourth for Jodhaa Akbar, for which he was also awarded at the Golden Minbar International Film Festival. These accomplishments have established him as one of the leading contemporary actors of Hindi cinema. He later received further acclaim for his work in Guzaarish (2010), Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) and Agneepath (2012).