Knowing And Not Knowing Salman Khan

Ali Peter John

For the first few years after a young man called Salman Khan was heard of, I only knew that he was the eldest son of the handsome writer Salim Khan who had formed a successful team of writers with Javed Akhtar, a poet as his partner. I used to see this young and lean man walking around some studios in the suburbs. It was J.K Bihari who was a very close associate of producer K.C Bokaria, whose greatest achievement was that he had taken the risk of completing“love"and“God"which was started by K.A Asif, the legendary maker of‘Mughal-E-Azam'who Bokaria treated as his mentor. Bihari once told me that he was looking for a young man to play the romantic lead in his film“Biwi Ho Toh Aise"starring Rekha and was considering the son of Salim Khan only because he was the son of very dear and respected friend.(Salim Khan)

The young man however was more interested in making a career as a director but his father asked him to give acting a try and that is how Salman Khan was introduced as an actor in Bihari's film which he had done just for the heck of it and without his heart in it....

His luck however changed when Sooraj Barjatya found in him the“Prem"he wanted for his first film as a director,“Maine Pyar Kiya". The film turned out to be a runaway hit and the Rajshris made the kind of money they had not made in several films put together. The film became cult film and“Prem"was another name for love..

However, like strange things happen in this industry, Salman who should have been flooded with offers did not sign any film for quite some time which left many puzzled, concerned and worried.

But Salman's father, Salim Khan was a“Pahuncha hua Khiladi". He planned a very simple strategy. He was a very close friend of producer G.P Sippy for whom he and his partner had written films like“Seeta Aur Geeta"and the phenomenally successful“Sholay". He asked Sippy to issue a letter on the letter head of Sippy Films and signed by him to say that Sippy Films had signed Salman Khan to play the leading role in his companies next film. Sippy agreed without any hesitation and surprisingly the roles just kept pouring in and Salman Khan was a star before his third film could be released.

He did not boast off any extraordinary histrionic talent, but he now had a handsome face and a muscular body which soon became the talk of the industry.

My very first brush with him was on the sets of one of his smaller films,“Suryvaanshi"which was being directed by Rakesh Kumar who had the unique record of directing six films with Amitabh Bachchan. I was covering the shooting with my photographer, R.D Rai who was an expert news photographer but was new to the world of films and had an attitude bordering on arrogance even though he was totally illiterate. Salman was shooting for an action sequence and his face was smeared with blood (red colour). Rai saw a great chance to click a close-up of the new star and kept clicking as if there was no tomorrow. Salman kept quiet for quite sometime, but when he saw Rai going over board, he asked him to stop, but Rai as I said was very arrogant and kept shooting till Salman shot back with a volley of the choicest expletives in Hindi and it was going to turn into an ugly scene which was averted by the arrival of the six feet and more tall director who brought about peace, but the story didn't end there.

Rai went back to the office and complaint about Salman to the then editor who seemed to have lost her temper and called a meeting of the staff to announce that Salman Khan was banned in our weekly. The news about a great paper like“Screen"banning Salman spread among all journalists who took a unanimous decision to ban Salman in every newspaper and magazine (there was no social media those days). The ban effected Salman in a big way and he had to sometimes face the humiliation of being asked to leave a group if a photograph to promote a film had to be published. It was a double-edged attack in which Salman and the producers of his film had to suffer... The ban went on for several years, till it was time to release Rajshri's biggest film,“Hum Aapke Hain Kaun".

The Rajshris were very clever buisnessman in the field of entertainment. The founder of the company, Seth Tarachand Barjatya had a telephonic conversation with the editor of“Screen"which was followed by the arrival of all the Rajshri brothers who had a long meeting with the editor and the ban on  Salman was called off and the very next issue carried his photograph with Madhuri Dixit on the cover. There were no further problems between“Screen"and Salman. But since I was a witness to the whole happening, I felt awkward to face Salman for years, till on January 24 which was the birthday of Subhash Ghai and I was the only journalist invited, I kept waiting for Salman who I was told was sure to come. Salman arrived like he normally does and I somehow didn't want to lose this chance of patching up with him.

It seemed as if nothing had happened. He remembered the scene very vividly and within minutes were like long lost friends and he was willing to meet me anywhere anytime I wanted to meet him. That one scene was enough to keep me happy for the rest of the night and many more days. A burden I was carrying for so many years was off my back atlast....

Even during our battle of secret silence, I kept track of all the highs and lows in Salman's life and career. I knew all about his late night accident in which his Land Rover ran over people sleeping in the pavement opposite the American Bakery on Hill Road which was only two minutes away from his house in Galaxy Apartments. I followed his black cinkra shooting case in Jodhpur. I also remembered the tough times he is supposed to have given some of his girlfriends especially Somi Ali, Aishwarya Rai and Katrina Kaif who he literally groomed and some other actresses, and above all his drunken late night brawls at  five-star hotels, his fight with a buisnessman and his endless jibes and verbal attacks on Vivek Oberoi.

But I have believed that there must be something good in this man, Salman. Otherwise, why should be have founded the Salman Khan Welfare Trust which helps any number of people and the #Being Human movement which had changed the style of hundreds and thousands of lives?

Thinking about Salman, I sometimes wonder what he would do and where he would stand if he had taken to direction seriously. Would he have made it as successfully as a director as he has as a star.

And the one thing I have not been able to know our understand is why this superstar who could do anything with his pull and power has not surrendered to the temptations of doing kissing scenes, bedroom scenes and other kinds of vulgar scenes which some actors of his own generations have fallen a victim to and the younger generation have made it a must to do.

He is thoroughly against the over use and even abuse used in the films made as web-series and other kinds of digital entertainment in which blatant sex and inhuman horror and violence are shown without any control over them. He says,“when we make films, the censors are ever so alert to cut off, chop off and even mutilate our films with reason or without. Why these double standards? Actually there should be a stricter body than the censor board to see that these kinds of films are not encouraged, because they can even be seen by little children in their mobile. I am strictly against this kind of so called entertainment and that the others do what they want to".

Salman is now giving the finishing touches to his“Dabangg-3"and is working very hard on what he considers his most ambitious and challenging films,“Bharat". He is playing an Indian from the age of nine to the age of seventy and the get ups that are already making the rounds are raising eye-brows and churning the minds of millions of Indians. What is this Bharat going to do which other Bharats in the past have not done?

He may go back to his original ambition and take his first step to turn a director. And if there is one thing he is sure of it is his ambition to make small but meaningful films and not to make films which are big and ambitious and are only made with money to make more money. His films will be a healing touch in every way, he says. And I hope this small ambition of the most ambitious stars comes true. Who knows, his kind of films may give a new direction to Hindi Cinema to which he has given so much and hopes to give back in many more ways.

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