Malaika Arora Khan with her son outside Galaxy. (Fotocrop)

Mumbai, Aug. 24: A throng of screaming fans before Salman Khan’s home is an everyday affair, but today was different.

It was an unusually warm day with no sight of rain clouds, and the promenade outside the sea-facing apartment block simmered with a thousand tense fans weeping and chanting prayers for their hero.

They swallowed every rumour that tossed about; they dashed across the street every time the gates of Galaxy opened to welcome in or let out a friend or well-wisher.

The fans seemed more anxious than the TV crews to accost the stream of guests, each of whom had to grapple with a dozen “where is Salman?” queries as they passed the gates.

In the end, the wait paid off. As Salman came out on his balcony to wave — a ritual he has been following week in and week out — the crowd went berserk.

Some began to weep. “Oh, the poor child!” cried a woman who couldn’t have been much older than the star.

“It’s one big circus. But let’s face it: for once, the media isn’t responsible. Salman Khan needs no media publicity to draw crowds,” said Yasmin Baroodwala, a student who stands with her college mates and scores of others every Sunday outside Galaxy, waiting for Salman to come out and wave.

“Of all the stars in Bollywood, there is a crowd only outside Salman Khan’s apartment every day. It doesn’t happen even outside Amitabh Bachchan’s home,” said Ravi, a plumber. He had no regrets that his vigil outside Galaxy was costing him a day’s wages.

“I just want to see him once before he goes to jail,” he said with a Bollywood touch.

Despite the huge traffic snarls along the kilometre-long A.B.J. Road, running along the Arabian Sea coast right from Salman’s home up to Shah Rukh Khan’s mansion, no one seemed to be complaining.

The bhuttawallas and chaatwallas, whose business picks up only in the evening when half of Bandra comes out to enjoy the sea breeze, made brisk business through the day.

Film industry colleagues, from Govinda and David Dhawan to Mohnish Behl, Aditya Panscholi and Vikram Phadnis, trooped in and out through the day, but the crowd had no interest in them other than as possible bearers of news about their favourite star.

There was unanimous approval for Salman’s brothers Sohail and Arbaaz when they came out together to inspect the crowd.

Saif Ali Khan, one of Salman’s co-accused in another poaching case in Rajasthan, was one of the visitors along with ex-wife Amrita Singh. His presence drew a couple of unkind remarks about his father Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi’s alleged black buck poaching expedition in Haryana.