KUCH BADE LOG JINKA KHWAAB THA SALMAN KE SAATH KAAM KARNA , LEKIN By ALI PETER JOHN

At one time in the 90s, Salman was so popular and such a big saleable proposition that every big and small filmmaker had ambitions and dreams of making at least one film with him. Some of them were very well known name who were not only known in film circles , but also in the industrial and creative fields - ALI PETER JOHN

The great painter M.F. Hussain had seen Hum Aapke Hain Kaun 98 times at the Liberty theatre in Bombay.

He committed this madness because he confessed that he was madly in love with Madhuri Dixit.

But he in his madness was also observing Salman who was the hero in HAHK and during one of our many chai meetings, he told me that Salman reminded me of Master Vitthal, a handsome and muscular hero of the silent era.

At another meeting , he said he would like to make a film with Salman and Madhuri and he was also working on a story that could suit them and had even spoken to his favourite cinematographer Santosh Sivan who he used to pay more than 5 crores to cinematograph a film of his. But like many of Hussain's dreams, this dream too died before it could be born.

The well known poet, writer and director Gulzar was also interested in casting Salman in a romantic film , but when he saw how Salman made headlines because of all the wrong reasons, Gulzar , the poet and peace loving man dropped the idea.

The so called director Govind Nihalani who made films like Ardh Satya , hazaar chaurasi ki maa and Dev and had never wanted to work with big stars was also interested in working with Salman, but Govind continued making his kind of films and will now never be able to make a film with Salman.

Soon after the release of Slumdog Millionaire which had Anil Kapoor in a key role, there were other directors from hollywood who showed interest in Salman's talent , but Salman was too busy with his films in India and ever since the 90s , he has not shown any inclination to work in hollywood.

Subhash Ghai has worked with him in two films , Yuvraj and Jai ho , but he still feels that his can make a couple of films with Salman and has even had been signed, but this dream of a showman also seems to be under a cloud , unless the showman comes up with an outstanding scripts.

And how can I forget of how Dev Anand wanted to work with Salman after he had worked with Aamir Khan and was writing a script keeping Salman in mind. But Dev sahab was growing older and couldn't really keep pace with the heroes of the younger generations. But he managed to get Salman to make a guest appearance in one of his last films, and I remember how Dev Sahab managed to literally run after Salman to pay him for the guest appearance, Salman had just touched his feet and vanished.

To this day , I know of several directors who would give their right hands to make a film with Salman. But the big question is, will salman want to work with them ?

SALMAN KA JAADOO TEES SAAL SE CHAL RAHA HAI AUR UMEED HAI KI WOH JAADOO KAI AUR SAAL CHALEGA.