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The Salman Khan you may not know

On the actor’s birthday, After Hrs unveils the person behind the megastar

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The first time I met Salman Khan was at Film City around June 2009. I had never met him before this and certainly not for an interview. He asked me a question that no other film star had ever asked me. “Have you done a journalism course? Or did you just feel, ‘Chalo let’s interfere in other people’s lives’ and so decided to become a journalist?” Tickled by this introductory, pre-empted counter-question, I responded, “That’s exactly why I became one!” This response immediately earned me an offer from the actor to sit next to him, much to the amusement of his producer Boney Kapoor, who, even if a gun was put to his head, could not request his Wanted superstar to give me an interview. Next, details about my marital status and age were sought and I furnished all details obediently in the hope of getting that exclusive one-on-one-session I so badly wanted to land. There was no sign of an interview. Not yet.      

INTERVIEWING SALMAN

Over the next couple of days, I showed up at the various locations he was shooting at. On the fourth day, I got a call to meet him at RK Studio in Chembur. I finally came face-to-face with Salman and an hour-long interview was granted. Over the next five years or so, between meeting Salman some 25 times and getting around 10 more interviews with him I got to know the actor a little better each time I visited him.

This would not have been possible if I hadn’t spent enough time with Bhai, as he is fondly referred to in industry circles. The fact that the actor is always seated outside his vanity van and not inside (where all stars are found), made it that much easier for me. On noticing me from far, he would wave out and invite me to join him on his make-shift table. I suspect that he liked the fact that I did not blabber too much and waited patiently for him to warm up, till I could ask him for whatever I wanted from him. Not that he was not aware of this.

BONDING OVER FOOD

I suspect that the actor liked me, somewhat. I had relatively easy access, not to him but to most of the film sets where he was shooting and I would land up without an appointment. Gradually, his team of assistants began recognising me and gave me the same respect that I would get from Salman. So even if the actor was busy in a shot or had not yet arrived on set, I was made to feel at home. And yes fed well. Always! Unfailingly! The legendary Khandaan hospitality was always upheld. I learned from someone close to him that at any given point of time the home cooked food that is packed for Bhai is enough to feed 25 mouths. There are just too many people who visit him on the set for various reasons!

BEING HUMAN

During several such waiting sessions I witnessed his numerous generous acts, which all those who know him too well will recognise to be true. Once, during a shoot of Wanted, four sweeper women from Film City asked him for saris. He asked them the total number of women sweepers in the studio and he promptly sent a unit hand to purchase 35 saris. At another time during a promotional press meet for Wanted, around lunch time he asked the film’s publicist Beena Ahuja to join him for lunch. Ahuja declined saying that she is vegetarian and that she wouldn’t be able to eat what he eats. Immediately, Salman sent one of his boys to fetch vegetarian food from his home in Bandra. Only when the vegetarian meal had arrived and Ahuja had begun to eat, did Salman touch his grub.

HELPING HAND

At another time on the set of Bigg Boss 4 in Karjat, while he was seated outside his vanity van he noticed a man with hefty skin eruptions all over his face and neck. He called the man over and inquired about his skin condition and that if he had sought medical help for it. When the man said that it was curable and would require surgery but he could not afford it, Salman immediately told his sister Alvira, seated next to him, to give his doctor’s number to the man. “Please go to this doctor and he will guide you further on how and where to get your treatment,” said Salman. Another journalist friend told me this story. Once, an old lady, queued outside his house, asked him for a computer for her son, since she couldn’t afford one. The actor called out his house help, “Arey woh laptop mujhe kisine diya tha, main kya karoonga uska, inko de do.” The actor admitted to this writer that he does not know how to type on a computer and rarely uses it.

NO FUSS KHAN

What sets Salman Khan apart from many others in his profession is the fact that he is a very real, earthy guy who has simple tastes. He has been spotted wearing the same belt over his jeans and t-shirt for countless public functions. I remember co-ordinating a photo shoot with him for a film magazine I was writing for at that time. Half an hour before the shoot his most trusted aide Nadeem phoned me to say that Bhai would do only three changes; I tried to bargain for four. When Salman arrived at Mehboob studio I noticed his t-shirt was slightly torn at the side. He sat on the chair outside Stage no 6 and  directed the photographer: ‘Chalo, shoot the first change here only.’ To my luck, the picture was shot from an angle where the torn part of the t-shirt was not visible. Seeing the perplexed expression on my face, he laughed raucously and ribbed me further, ‘Ajay, we will shoot the remaining three changes in the same position.’ I gently reminded him that he had worn the same lilac t-shirt at the first-look launch of his film Veer. “Ajay, t-shirt ko computer mein black kar dena.” Thankfully, the actor was in a good mood and instead of the three changes he shot for seven! Not because it was a shoot for a well-known magazine but because it was lensman Ajay S’s first major shoot for a film glossy.

MIDDLE CLASS VALUES

While superstars of his stature have moved into bigger bungalows, Salman continues to reside in a 1 BHK on the ground floor of Galaxy Apartments where his parents live on the first floor. Salman did purchase a bigger apartment. When it was ready for him to move in, his dad Salim Khan handed him the keys and said that he wouldn’t move in as he was happy at Galaxy. Salman shot back saying that he would not move in alone and asked his father to sell the house. He is also a nature lover and loves spending time at his farmhouse.

All in all, there are many layers to the larger-than-life persona of the supernova and only individuals close to him have been able to unravel those. Be it his philanthropic ventures or his unstinted support to countless newbies trying to find a footing in B-Town — he’s time and again proved that there’s no one like him. Perhaps that indescribable and rare x chromosome in Khan makes him the enigma that he’s always remained and continues to be.

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