In a new light

As always, he is cucumber-cool, placid — and late for our interaction! The reason — as always again: other interactions with more media. Salman Khan saunters into the room with a seemingly blank expression, looks x-rays at you as if trying to gauge your intent, transforms his face with a broad smile that radiates his classic, good-natured handsomeness, and settles in a tall chair.

After the most enviable track-record any Indian actor has had in the last five years, and that at 49-plus, Khan has nothing to prove as a (super)star. His recent legal ordeal has not visibly burdened him, though at one point, while expanding on his superstardom, he does mention that “I don’t get myself into trouble — anymore.”

The superhero tag

We begin with what we know about the film, which everyone from co-star Kareena Kapoor Khan to composer Pritam have been saying is a Salman Khan movie, but not of the kind that the actor has been doing since Dabangg. There is a story somewhere and he is playing a (more-or-less) normal character in it, so how did he find this change after such a long time?

A dismissive smile crinkles his countenance. “Kuch nahin, I am playing a super-hero. See, initially I am a simpleton, but ultimately I end up becoming a super-hero.”

He decides to elaborate: “What does a super-hero normally do? He beats up the bad guys. But here, Pawan, my character, does not want to get into it, and though he can easily beat everyone to pulp, he chooses not to, and gets beaten instead for a larger cause. That’s also a kind of heroism. When you lay down your life for a larger cause like your country, community or family, you become as large as the backdrop.” Did a secret slip from him? No, in no way is he revealing whether Pawan lays down his life in the film.

Well into the groove instead, he continues: “The characters that I have essayed including Chulbul and Radhe overcame the backdrop, but here it is about this man’s journey towards becoming a better person. He is growing, his eyes are opening, he is seeing nice things in this world, doing good deeds, and each step is making him a better human being, as he keeps finding people who are beautiful.”

Salman makes it clear that he will do larger-than-life, noble characters. “I have to do characters that are larger than at least my life. There is no point in essaying a neeche ka aadmi. I do try and absorb good things from 75 to 80 per cent of my characters, like the deeds that they do. These help me become a better person. Let me also tell you that my naughtiness, my romances and my flirtations are not going to go, but the utimate goal is going to be achieved.”

With the largest number of films placed in the coveted 100-crore-plus category and with not a single flop since 2009, how does he look upon his superstar status? He shakes his head. “I don’t look upon myself as a superstar — or even as an actor. I am just a guy doing his job, and I see myself more as someone who has been extremely lucky. Because I have got the right scripts, the right directors who know how to project me, producers who invested a lot of money on me, editors and directors of photography who made me look 10 times as better than the real me. We all know how we look in the mirror when we wake up, and how many hours and hard work go into what we look in public. When I know all that, I cannot go cuckoo in the head thinking, ‘Wow! How fantastic I am!’”

He would rather not make stereotypical comments on his second outing with Kabir Khan or even Kareena, with whom he has worked twice before. On Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who has gone to town describing the bond that developed between Salman and him this time (and not during Kick), Salman amusedly retorts, “He said that? Maybe he thought that way. Actually we never saw eye-to-eye!” Joke over, he goes on, “There were so many fantastic places to see in Kashmir while working and afterwards. We could get a lot of time to chat!”

Mention of Kashmir also sets Salman going. “Kashmir is like heaven, and those people deserve better than the hell they are going through, although things are improving now, slowly. I used to hear that a person must visit Kashmir before he dies. If I had my way, I would change that to seeing Kashmir 10 to 15 times before you die. I would love to have a clause where I would shoot again and again in Kashmir, rather than show Switzerland as Kashmir in a film!”

Playing to the gallery

Salman is also appalled by the fact that there are no movie halls in Kashmir. “People there watch movies at home on television or DVDs with families — imagine the loss of revenue for the industry and the lack of big-screen entertainment for them. But I had to pretend that I did not know they never had movie halls, for once, a remark of mine that there should be theatres there had led to a fatwa on me!”

We move to Harshali, the adorable six-year-old girl who is the pivot of the story. “Frankly, I was a bit apprehensive, as I expected one of those typical Hindi film kids who whine in such an irritating fashion. I don’t know where they got her from, but, of the three shortlisted girls that I met, she was the only one who actually asked me, ‘Can you make me a superstar like you?’ The other two candidates were just looking at her. There was nothing really to discuss and no contest! She was the hands-down winner. But the only thing that freaked her out was the violence, and she would refuse to speak to the actors involved after witnessing a fight.”

Salman warns that his new movie is all about respect for another country and religion while being loyal to your own. “I really fail to see why people foment hatred because of their close-mindedness and for petty gains, because it is such a waste. In court, I was asked my religion. Why? My father is a Muslim, my mother a Hindu, and my stepmother Helenji, a Christian. What does that make me? So I said I am an Indian. My family, and my extended family — the film industry — all of us consider everyone as just human beings.”

We then ask him about his fabled generosity and helpful nature: years ago, we had read that Salman had been inspired by Kumar Gaurav, the 80s sensation.  A pleased laugh follows, and he replies: “I have had the greatest pleasure of being helped by so many generous seniors — I was a model then, earning decently, and Kumar once saw my simple car having rundown tyres. He took me to his garage and offered me brand-new BMW tyres that did not fit his new car. He then asked me my waist size and also gave me a huge stack of his jeans as he had put on weight.

Suniel Shetty saw me eyeing cowboy boots with spurs in his shop with the look of a man who could not afford the price. He took me to his house right opposite the shop and gave me a pair he was not using. And Jackie Shroff even took my pictures to Subhash Ghai.”