They Have Seen And Loved Their Sallu Bhai All The Way-And He Has Loved Them All The More..

Ali Peter John

I don't think I would be exaggerating in the least if I say that there are three major festivals celebrated in Bandra,a suburb in Mumbai which was once called the queen of the suburbs, the first is the more than 100 year old festival celebrated by people of all castes at the Basilica of the Mother of the Mount,where lakhs of people gather for a week in the belief that their prayers would be heard and their petitions be granted, the second festival is the one celebrated outside ‘Mannat', which is just below the Basilica of the Mount and which is the palatial bungalow of Shah Rukh Khan, the boy who once came to Bombay with hardly fifty rupees in his pocket and the third festival which is really a festival celebrated by hundreds and thousands of the most common people of India and even other places is the one that is celebrated outside Galaxy Apartments opposite the 600 hundred year old St.Andrews Church, where Salman Khan lives eversince he was born with his family. This festival happens everyday, but it reaches a new peak and touches dizzy heights and borders on devotions on December 27, Sallu Bhai's (as he is popularly known as) birthday...

• It was from here that the little boy Salman and his brothers, Arbaaz and Sohail walked in the nearby St.Stanislaus Convent High School for boys. They were all average students, but were very interested in sports and cultural activities.
• Salman in particular was very fascinated by his handsome father, Salim Khan and his profession as a film writer. He closely followed his rise, his fall and his great split with his writing partner Javed Akhtar. He always remembered how the house once used to be full of bouquets on his birthday and how they were one or two or none when he had split. The young Salman had learnt one of his first lessons about the industry.
• But, he still wanted to be a part of the same industry. He wanted to be an actor. He was lucky since his father's friend, Mr J.K Bihari was making a film with Rekha and Farouque Shaikh and needed a young hero and signed Salman Khan. The film flopped, but Salman still signed a couple of films, but one recognition only after films like “Maine Pyar Kiya" and “Andaz Apna Apna" and then there was just no stopping him. He was the unquestioned heartthrob of the masses...
• And he was now known as Sallu Bhai. Bhai in Mumbai could mean the one who protects the poor and the needy and Bhai could also mean a man who gave his heart out to his people. Sallu Bhai played both the roles in real life to perfection. He started his Being Human Foundation and The Salman Khan Welfare Trust which was managed by his father. He went out of his way to help every cause that he felt was deserving and was known as the modern day Good Samaritan.
• Salman also helped people to build their careers in the industry, especially the young women like Somy Ali, Sneha Ulal, Aishwarya Rai, Katrina Kaif, Daisy Shah, Sonakshi Sinha, Saie Manjrekar and Pranutan Bahl, the grand daughter of Nutan. He also helped establish male actors like Govinda when they were facing bad times, but was very distressed with their behaviour, the kind of behaviour he couldn't understand, but he never stopped his good work.
• He is very close to his family. He cannot do anything that will hurt either of his mothers Salma or Helen. He loves his brothers, Arbaaz and Sohail and his sisters, Alvira and Arpita for whom he had a marriage reception which was worthy of a queen and people admired him all the more because Arpita was adopted by the family.

Salman will be fifty-four today and if there is one thought that is nagging and worrying his family, friends, fans and admirers, it is his reluctance to talk about getting married. The last time he was asked about why he was avoiding marriage, he had looked very sad and had said that he was suffering from some strange disease and he did not want to ruin the life of the woman who would marry him...

WHENEVER I THINK OF SALMAN KHAN AND I THINK ABOUT THE MILLIONS WHO THINK THEY KNOW HIM,I THINK SALMAN IS THE KIND OF MAN WHO YOU CAN THINK YOU KNOW BUT WHO YOU WILL NEVER KNOW BECAUSE HE DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW. I DON'T KNOW WHETHER HE WILL LIKE MY COMPARISON, BUT IN MANY WAYS, I THINK HE IS SO MUCH LIKE HIS NEIGHBOUR AND THE HEROINE OF HIS FIRST FILM, THE EVER SO ENIGMATIC AND MYSTERIOUS REKHA.

THE SALMAN, I KNOW

I must confess that I have had some very brief and strange close encounters with Salman Khan aka Sallu by those who love him, but who has strangely given me no reason to be happy about my encounters with him. The times I have met him have been strange because every time we have met there has been some awkward happenings which has left me baffled.

I remember the first time. There was this friend, J.K Bihari who was once an assistant of one of the most prolific filmmakers, K.C. Bokadia. Bihari had managed to get finances to make a film he had always wanted to make. All I remember was that Rekha was the leading lady and Bihari was very proud about giving a break to a young boy called Salman Khan who he (Bihari) told me was the eldest son of writer Salim Khan of the once celebrity team of writers, Salim - Javed. I was interested. I wanted to see how the son of the handsome Salim Khan looked like. I was invited by Bihari to watch the shooting of his film while this new boy Salman was shooting with Rekha. Bihari introduced me to the young Khan who was lean, short, not so good looking and had very long hair like it was the trend and style among boys of his age. Bihari introduced me to him and the young and brash Khan just shook my hand. I later came to know the he told Bihari not to invite “this faltoo press people during the time he was shooting because they only specialized in writing nonsense and I don’t like these people who my father has advised me to keep away from”. I took his decision very seriously and told Bihari I would never visit his sets whenever this young Khan was around.

The second time I met him was when he had become a known name. He was shooting for a film called “Sooryavanshi” at the Filmalaya Studios. I was still not interested in watching him shoot after how he had treated me the first time, but it was at the insistence of my friend Rakesh Kumar who once directed big films like “Mr.Natwarlal”, “Yaaraana” and “Do Aur Do Panch” with Amitabh Bachchan. I reached the set with my photographer, the late Mr.R.D.Rai. A typical fight sequence was being pictures and Rakesh Kumar was nowhere to be seen like most directors do when a fight sequence or a dance is being picturised. The action director was in charge of the scene. The young Khan’s face which had now started growing a little more handsome was splattered with blood (tomato ketchup) and my photographer who had joined a film weekly after many years of working with a leading daily went into action and shot every scene he and his camera could see. The young Khan started hurling abuses and showing his fist to my photographer who kept on doing his job. The shot was over and the young Khan came rushing towards my photographer. He snatched his camera from his hands and pulled out the reel he had shot and asked the photographer to leave the set and told the producer he would not shoot as long as the photographer was around. I intervened and told the young Khan we were invited by the producer and doing our duty if not we were not at all interested in taking any of his pictures. The young Khan again showed his colour by muttering some insulting words under his breath. I decided not to take the matter lightly. I went to the office and reported the whole incident to my Editor. She was livid with anger and instantly decided to ban the young Khan in our paper. No photographs, not even stills from films and no articles about the rising Khan would be published until he offered an apology. Those days there was a strong unity among photographers after knowing what had happened with my photographer and they all decided to ban him. They decided to stay away from all the functions where the young Khan was expected. Some of them went to the extent of asking producers to get him out of a frame if they wanted their picture to be published. This tug of war continued for eight long years till the Rajshris who were making “Hum Aapke Hain Koun”. They had a meeting with my Editor and the young Khan again said something which seemed like an apology and the matter was resolved all because of our affinity with the Rajshris.

Then came my other encounter. We were all a group of award- winners on a flight to Delhi when suddenly Rakeshnath (Rikku) called out my name, Ali Peter John loud and the Khan who was now a major star came running towards me and I stared straight into Khan’s face without saying a word and he quietly left me in peace.

The next encounter we were planning our first major award ceremony and we needed stars to perform at the show. It was the first time we were having an awards function and we were having Akashdeep, a young event manager who was our advisor to manage the show. He believed that I had some very good contacts with all the stars and asked me why we should not take a chance with Salman Khan. I was reluctant but we needed someone like him. We met him at Film City and told him about our idea without wasting any time. And he laughed like a man gone half crazy and said “I will perform and I promise you I will be the best item of your function. I will do anything only if you pay me fifteen lakhs fifteen lakhs in 1995 was a huge amount and we immediately left him and drove out of Film City. It was on our way down that I told Akashdeep to try Shaadaab Khan, the son of Amjad Khan to do the famous “kitne aadmi the” scene from “Sholay”. Akashdeep thought it was a good idea. On our way back I met Shaadaab and he was more than happy to do the whole sequence which was a major highlight of our entire program.

There were times when he felt he deserved the best actor award we gave away every year and when he did not find his name in the list of nominees, he lost no opportunity in running down our paper and especially my Editor and me, who he said had something against him. The popular category was decided by a jury which was formed by the members from within the industry, but who could make this head- strong Khan understand?

His father, Salim Khan once called me home to ask me if this unnecessary battle could not stop I remember meeting Rajnikanth who said, “Bachcha hai, Ali, maaf kardo aur jhagda bandh kar do”. I was willing to do anything because I and my paper were not interested in creating problems but solving them. We waited for the Khan to give us some concrete reasons to show that he had really improved, but nothing like that happened. The whole press was full of his wild stories about his romances and then the story about his running over and killing people and the killing of Cinkaras in the forest of Jodhpur and his being tried for what was considered a major crime. It was these happenings that were the spice of every magazine, weekly and newspaper in the country. We just neglected him and he even took that as the Khan with a big heart.

He is one of the most successful stars today, as some of his releases strongly prove. I only hope he grows greater as a star, humbler as a human being and understanding towards one and all. This is just a piece of advice which can change his world and it is high time it did.

MORE ON SALMAN KHAN.

Ø He is the eldest son of Salim Khan, a man who tried to make it as an actor in the 60’s. Salim Khan found some “sidey” character roles to play. All his efforts to make it big as Prince Salim (the name he took on as an actor) ended up in reaching nowhere. He finally joined Sippy Films (the Company which made “Sholay” as an assistant and as a part of the writing department. It was here that Salim Khan met Javed Akhtar, a struggling writer and poet met and together formed a team of writers, calling themselves Salim-Javed. Their parting ways is part of history. Salim found it difficult while Javed went on to become a leading lyricist and writer of some of the most successful films. Salim saw potential in his son, Salman and tried his best to promote him. Salman has two brothers, Sohail and Arbaaz who have followed in his footsteps and are also well known producers, directors and actors only because of the support of their “Sallu bhai sahab”. He has a sister. Alvira who was adopted by his parents and is now married to actor and director, Atul Agnihotri. Salim Khan was always known to have an affair with Helen, the dancing sensation. He openly brought her home as his second wife and she was accepted by his first wife Salma and all their children. The entire Khan family lives in a huge apartment in a building called Galaxy Apartment facing the sea in Bandra. The family also has a large fars house in Panvel where Salim Khan spends most of his time and the family goes on weekends or whenever they can all find to be together.

Ø Salman was a very well -behaved boy in his school and till his teens, but is said to have changed after he tasted success as an actor.

Ø He has always had a fascination for having a good physique. He has his own gym at home.

Ø His affairs with the opposite sex are his way of life. In films it all started with Somy Ali, an actress from Pakistan, but their affair didn’t last long and finally led to Somy quitting films altogether. After making it as a big star, he fell for Aishwarya Rai, Miss World 1995 and the beauty queen reciprocated. He literally played into the strong hands of her man and their affair reached new highs when he almost possessed her. He decided which films she should do and which she shouldn’t and the directors she should work with or not. Their long-time affair ended when Aishwarya finally got engaged to Abhishek and was part of the Bachchan family.

Ø He loves pulling the legs of all his contemporaries, all the Khans and Kumars. He is full of respect for seniors like Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand. Some years ago Dev wanted him to make a special appearance in one of his films. He called him and told him what his role was and Salman who just sat at Dev’s feet said, “Anyhing for you, Dev Sahab, you are like my father you can ask me to do anything and I will do it without any hesitation”. He gave Dev two full days and it goes without saying that he did not charge a rupee. He is also known for helping out some producers who have fallen on bad days, especially cases recommended by his father. He is known to be one of the most co-operative stars when he finds the right vibes with filmmakers and can be very difficult with those he doesn’t like.

Ø He is known for his extreme affection for women of all ages. He could have created problems when his father brought Helen home as his second wife, but he was the first to call her “Mummy” which was something followed by all the other young Khans in the family. The number of times he has helped women in distress are too many to recount.

Ø He was a strong supporter of Sanjay Dutt when he was involved in the 93 bomb blast and kept telling people “Sanjay bhai sahab” was innocent and will come out innocent one day, which has proved to be wrong as Sanjay has been convicted and is now in Yerawada Jail in Pune.

Ø He is entirely naive when  it comes to politics as he proved during the recent Lok Sabha elections when he campaigned for candidates of almost all the major parties without knowing what their policies were or even caring to know.

Ø If there is one of family he treats with all he respect it is the Rajshri family. He has the greatest respect for Sooraj Barjatiya who he considers as his Guru who made him a star. He touches the fee of every member of the Rajshri family “because they are the kind of people who cannot be found in this industry easily”. He has confirmed that he will do Sooraj’s next “Kartik” to start in 2014...

Ø He is a great help when it comes to the poor and the downtrodden, he donates money to all the charitable causes and takes special interest in children without parents and boys and girls who are talented and have no scope for their talent to grow. He looks after the needs of several families and widows in and around Panvel where his farm house is. He is also known for his “Being Human” campaign.

Ø Salman turned a writer with “Veer”. He recently wrote the story of “Dabangg 3”.

Ø Who is the real Salman Khan, Salman as the gossip magazines and all those who specialize in spreading wild stories about even the most docile human beings or Salman who is seen as a saviour by so many families who look up to him as a saviour?

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