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| Salman Khan in Calcutta on Friday. Picture by Aranya Sen |
Have you figured out why Main Aurr Mrs Khanna couldn’t ride the Wanted wave?
You know, in real life I have always tried to be a normal guy. Try and be like just about everybody else. But because I am in the movies, the image is taken to a different level altogether... it’s colossal, it’s humungous, it’s gigantic. So when somebody like that plays a normal man, it’s not accepted.
I tried that in Dil Ne Jise Apna Kahaa, I tried that in Jaan-e-Mann and now in Main Aurr Mrs Khanna. All these films, when you watch them later on TV or on DVD, you say: “What a beautiful film! Wonder why it didn’t work!” It didn’t work because you didn’t go to the theatres to see it. Now, you have a film like Wanted... you want to go out, make it an event and watch it with all your friends. Have a blast, scream, shout... be entertained!
It’s said that you have made bad career decisions to help your friends and family and Main Aurr Mrs Khanna is another of those mistakes...
I believed in Main Aurr Mrs Khanna. Within the world of entertainment, it tried to say something beautiful. That being a man doesn’t always mean that you have to be a hero like in Wanted. First you have to take care of your family, your wife and do it with respect, with culture, with dignity. It takes a lot of time to build such a relationship and it takes five minutes to destroy it. I do believe that being the man of Main Aurr Mrs Khanna is much more important than being the man of Wanted. Maybe people are not ready for such a film. Maybe they want to get out of that kind of life and see this kind of life. You could blame it on the state of our country... the poverty, the politicians, the corruption, no jobs... They want to get out of all these things for those two-and-a-half hours and go have fun.
So, will you now do the audience’s bidding and stick to films like Wanted?
No. No. No. You always learn. You keep on learning no matter how old you get or how experienced you become. There’s always a younger generation. And every six months, there are people who are introduced to Salman Khan or Shah Rukh Khan or Aamir Khan or Akshay Kumar or Amitabh Bachchan or Hrithik Roshan. Every six months, a kid comes into consciousness and he goes: “Aah! Oh oh jaane jaana or Love me, love me, love me or Dus ka dum.” You always have to be at it. There will be a time when these kinds of films will be accepted.
Like my own nephew and niece walked out of the theatre while watching Main Aurr Mrs Khanna and me and Sohail realised that this is the biggest disaster we have made. Nirvan and Arhaan said: “It’s very boring... we are going!” And they have their Papa and Chacha in the film! Wanted they watched it four times. Then we thought the women audience will come and watch the film (Main Aurr…)…. The Monday audience, like what Anil Kapoor used to have, when the women would take their husbands to watch his films after the weekend! But even that didn’t happen. I guess, husbands don’t listen to their wives anymore (laughs out loud)!
You usually work with your inner circle. What made you say yes to Vipul Shah for London Dreams?
I liked him. He’s very clear, he’s very precise. There’s a lot of homework. He’s not one of those directors who goes to the sets and then thinks of what to do. Vipul’s prepared. He’s planned it months in advance. He has done his shot division and once you are on the sets, the lighting’s ready and the camera is in place. So, work that would take five-six days to do, he manages to pull that off in one day. He also has a tremendous script sense. Hugely commercial, has humour... being from a theatre background, he knows the possible response having seen it on stage, right then and there. London Dreams is a very impactful film.
Your coming together with Ajay Devgn is an instant throwback to Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam for all of us. What was it like for you?
That was 10 years ago. Also, that was a love triangle. Ajay and me didn’t know each other in the movie. We have, of course, been friends for a long, long time but in the film we didn’t know each other. Out here, we play best friends. That comes across. Till the time we feel that friendship, till the time we are almost like brothers, no ego clashes, no hassles.... till that is not there in your personal lives, it doesn’t come across that well on screen. Ajay and me do not have any of these problems. We are very chilled out. We have no problems with who has the better dialogues, marks, clothing, where we are staying, make-up rooms, vans... no issues at all. We have a great connect and that chemistry comes out on screen beautifully.
When Sooraj Barjatya was trying to cast you as Prem in Maine Pyar Kiya, you were recommending your friend for the role. Twenty years later in this industry, do you think friendship is truly worth gold?
Friendship is worth more than gold. There’s this story of this guy who used to sit in his friend’s office all the time and wait for him to finish his meeting. And the friend would never have time for him. One day, there was nobody in the office and he asked his friend, what happened. The friend said that he’s made huge losses and everything was finished. So he asked: “How much is the loss?” The friend said, Rs 150 crore. He called up a guy and said: “Sir, main aap se baat karta tha na mere dost ke baare mein, woh takleef mein hain... usey 150 crore chahiye.” And the cheque came instantly. So the friend asked: “How did you manage it?” Then he said: “When you were making money, I was making friends.”
But doesn’t such an attitude hurt you often, because not everybody thinks like you?
But it is a fact that friendship is a lot more important than anything in life. Today money is there, tomorrow it may not be there. Those are the guys who would stand by you and you would stand by them. I hope nobody has to go through that situation where he touches rock bottom and I hope they do well and make more than two ends meet... and go to sleep happy.
You once considered Shah Rukh Khan a friend and now, you refuse to acknowledge his presence. Friendships can turn bitter...
Everybody’s got a dream, boss. Everybody’s got a dream. Some people have lots of expectations from the world because of the way they think of their own selves. “I believe I can do this, I believe I can do that, I believe I am better than so and so”... and they get frustrated when the world doesn’t agree with them. You can have talent but with that talent you may not connect with the audiences and you can have nothing and yet there’s something that connects with the audience. You may be mediocre but there’s something that’s extraordinary in your personality, in your mannerism, in your behaviour that gets accepted in a second. There can be actors, dancers, singers, performers million times better than me and a lot more hard-working than me, a lot more serious about their work, but they haven’t made it.
Have you been able to figure out what is in your personality, in your behaviour, in your mannerism that instantly connects with the audience?
I don’t know what is it. There’s something I have which they can never have. There’s a connect, I don’t know what the connect is.
You have rocked the small screen. You have now hosted two seasons of Dus Ka Dum. What do you think was the trick?
There’s no trick boss. There’s no trick. Everybody wants to be politically correct. I am not. I believe if I have done something, the whole country has done something. Everybody is thinking what men would think and what women would think and what kind of morchas would come out against you and which political party would have a problem with which word. I didn’t think of all that at all. I just made sure that I gave the pros and cons of whatever I said. I gave my own examples, from my life, from the lives of my parents, my friends. That is me. I just gave me. I was not playing a host. I was playing Salman Khan. You come to my house... this is who I am and this is what you get. Now, it is a very scary thing... to put your whole personality out there. But I did it. I said whatever’s happened in my life, that everybody always wanted to know... ki yeh kya tha, woh kya tha, ki yeh hua tha, woh hua tha... Of course, you can’t use the language you use in real life. Everybody is abusing in real life. If you were to catch anybody talking like they do in real life, every day there would be a scandal or a scoop. But on national TV, you have to leave out the F-word and other words. Halaa ke, I am 45 years old. In my generation, it’s okay. But there are kids and kids, till a particular age, shouldn’t be introduced to any of this stuff. From people like us, it’s expected that you say what you want, you do comedy, you preach and you teach and you can be a little naughty without being disgusting.
Just recently, you had the Being Human fashion show. How did it feel to have so many of your friends walk for your cause?
Everybody thinks that one day I woke up and thought of this concept of ‘being human’ and I thought of fashion show, a clothing line and a watch brand and let me call my friends over. Let me tell you, this thing was there in my heart, in my mind for the last 25 years. It has taken me 25 years to make that one phone call, ki boss, I am doing something like this, will you come? It has taken me 25 years. I have earned this... it’s not like I met somebody and told him, buddy come and walk for me. No, it’s not that. And each of these guys has a quality. From Akshay Kumar to Ajay Devgn to Aamir to Sanju to Govind (yes, he said Govind, not Govinda), everybody has a quality. That is why these guys can bounce back. They are out, they bounce back, they are out, they bounce back. And these qualities are ‘being human’ qualities. From the time I have started my career, my audience... they saw something in me. The more people spent money to watch my films or my concerts, I kept getting richer and richer and richer. It’s time now, yaar... it’s time to give back.
Are movies still your priority?
Yes, of course. I am very clear about that. If I don’t have movies, I am out of sight. And out of sight is out of mind. They won’t give a damn. Charitable trust chalta rahega, dhakke marte rahenge but when your presence won’t be there on screen, no one will care. And when Being Human becomes a brand of its own, then the respect for that will be there.