**Frankly Speaking:Salman Khan with Arnab Goswami 2007!!**

Salman Khan: The hero of the masses


Salman Khan: The hero of the masses
7/25/2007 10:58:41 AM

Salman Khan on Frankly Speaking with Arnab Goswami

The ultimate brat of Bollywood, the man the media loves to hate but has his place firmly secured in the hearts of millions of his fans - Salman Khan in one of his most candid interviews takes TIMES NOW's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami on a journey from the young, innocent kid of the 1980s to the star he is today.

Arnab: Your first big release was in 1988, around the time you were starting off as an actor. Can you tell us a little bit about it?
Salman: Nothing has changed since that. Everybody grows every single day if he wants to grow. Once you start getting success and the confidence and the money comes up, it’s the time for you to come back to the person you were. That man is changed after success; he is a changed man after he gets success.

Arnab: People change…
Salman: I cannot be my original self; I have to be ten times or hundred times nicer to you. When you get it and when you become successful in your field, that’s when your real personality shows.

Arnab: You’re basically saying that a person has to be like that.
Salman: Oh, throughout. For me, the way I was then, I am today. My father is Salim Khan, one of the biggest writers so we never had to struggle in money matters. My struggle was of a different kind. At that point, the films people used to make were action films and there were no romantic films. The heroes used to play lawyers, ‘mohalley ka dada’ and cops. I couldn’t see a slot for me. I was too young; I was 18-19 years old and I used to weigh about 50 to 52 kg.

Arnab: You wanted to be an actor?
Salman: I wanted to be a director, actually.

Arnab: Is that your fathers influence?
Salman: No, its just that I thought that I would make a good director. I didn’t think I’ll make it as an actor. I was young and I didn’t have that much grey matter. When you see Jackie Shroff, Sanjay Dutt. Amitabh Bachan and Mithun Chawkroborthy walking into your house, you see the difference.

Arnab: What difference?
Salman: The kind of roles people were doing, I couldn’t look like that . I was too young to play a lawyer or a cop. Those were the roles people were playing.

Arnab: Did you go through the moment of self doubt. There is a story that when you were trying to get your first break, you didn’t use your fathers name as an actor. Did you have a period of a struggling actor?
Salman: Yes, I did for the longest time, because when I wanted to be a director, I went to producers with scripts. They would tell me that I would be better off as an actor.

Arnab: As Salman Khan.
Salman: Yes.

Arnab: Not Salim Khan’s son.
Salman: No

Arnab: That was a conscious decision?
Salman: Yes, most of the actors and producers who use to come home, had seen me. So I couldn’t go to them, I had to go to all the people who hadn’t seen me. So there was a lot of struggle, so I went through the whole thing. The two people who were really nice to me were the late Mr. Mukul Anand - he was amazing - and Rajiv Rai. Mukul Anand sat down with me, narrated three scripts because I knew Mukul. Then there is Rajiv Rai; he was in the midst of a conversation when I went to ask him for work. He knew my father; his dad and my dad worked together. So he told me to give up the struggling act and be straight with him.

Arnab: Did others show you the door?
Salman: Yes.

Arnab: Did they know you were Salim Khan’s son?
Salman: My dad was a writer, he refused many films. He would do a film a year, so everybody wanted to work with him. At that point of time, when he refused to do someone’s film, it would turn into an ego issue. That somehow came out when they came to know that his son wanted to be an actor. When I would approach them for work, they would ask me why my father didn’t write a film for me.

Arnab: But isn’t it an obvious question?
Salman: Yes, it is.

Arnab: When you were struggling, did you think to go up to your father and ask for help?
Salman: I didn’t feel the need. I wanted the success and the failure to be mine.

Arnab: What are the things you had to work on?
Salman: It’s a visual medium, so you have to look good. At that point of time, there was nobody there with a decent body. That is something I started off with.

Arnab: Do you idolise Silvester Stallone?
Salman: Yes, I saw his last. He is 60-plus years old and he is in amazing shape. Here, at 30 your life is over.

Arnab: Did you say “I’ll be Silvester Stallone”?
Salman: No.

Arnab: Success came to you in 1988 in a film titled ‘Biwi Ho To Aisi’
Salman: I must have been the only person who must have actually prayed for his film to not do well because I was so embarrassed with my work in the film.

Arnab: There was Rekha.
Salman: Yes.

Arnab: Rekha and Farooq Sheikh.
Salman: Yes.

Arnab: It was the brother’s role, right?
Salman: Yes, brother’s role, and I thought the role didn’t obviously shape up that way, because it’s not in your control; the director wants you to do something, and you do it.

Arnab: You don’t have to be embarrassed about it. It was your debut film.
Salman: I am not embarrassed about it at all. I actually learnt what not to do and If Suraj Barjatiya hadn’t taken me in ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’, it would have been very difficult for me to come in this position.

Arnab: What made it click in such a big way? Was it Salman Khan?
Salman: No.

Arnab: Was it Suraj Barjatiya, the director?
Salman: Yes.

Arnab: Was it a combination of both?
Salman: It’s actually the innocence of the movie. It was actually a truly beautiful love story of simple people. What actually works was that you want a son like Prem, a boyfriend like Prem, a brother like Prem. So he filled into each and every slot. That is what worked in that movie. The music was good too. It was the first film of the youth genre.

Arnab: Your father also wrote ‘Sholay’, ‘Deevar’…
Salman: Yes.

Arnab: He wrote Don - three different characters. Even Amitabh Bacchan in these three characters was different.
Salman: Yes.

Arnab: Did you want to be like any of those characters or did you prefer this sweet romantic boy image?
Salman: At that point, I couldn’t have done that. I went through lots of script narration and I can’t see myself (in such a role). I could see Sanju or Jackie or Sunny doing it.

Arnab: Why?
Salman: There is a look. When someone narrates a script, you visualise it; I couldn’t see myself doing those roles.

Arnab: Where you underconfident.
Salman: I am a smart guy, dude. Why would I be under confident? I am an intelligent person. When I know this is something I won’t be able to do, why even try? Today is a time when I can do it and I can do it much better than just about anybody.

Arnab: When ‘Maine Pyaar Kiya’ became such a hit, tell me your reaction. There was so much adulation at that point of time. How did life change?
Salman: This is the only film I had full confidence in because when they screened the film at the Rajshri theatre, everybody wanted to come and see the film. People wanted to watch the film again and again, even without the score, and without any effects.

Arnab: What was the one thing that made the film work?
Salman: You didn’t understand; I answered it. What worked in the film was that character Prem. You wanted him to be your son, your brother, your boyfriend. As an audience, when you go to see that movie, you relate to Prem. A girl might want to have a boyfriend like Prem, another girl might want a brother like Prem. Old women would want a son or grandson like Prem. So that got audiences together. I think, at that point, people were also fed up of that whole genre of dacoits, cops and politicians. In this film, the whole genre was wiped out. One major thing in this film was there was no exposure, no vulgar dialogues. So the masses came to see the film, then they would go back home and buy another thirty tickets and come back and see the film with their families.

Arnab: You added one more element to your acting which was comic timing. That’s something which you did with straight face. Not many leading stars have that ability to do it with a straight face.
Salman: I don’t try to do comedy there. I have no funny bone in my body. It’s just that sometimes I’m actually serious and people are laughing, which is not good.

Arnab: Why is that?
Salman: It’s not good. I don’t intend that to be comedy and it comes out like that and that I have to change now.

Arnab: Why you want to change that?
Salman: In a comedy film its all good. But when you are doing a serious film and people are laughing, that’s not good.

Arnab: There are three Khans and each Khan is a different Khan. There is an intellectual Khan which my description may or may not agree intellectual Khan is Aamir Khan. Flamboyant Khan is Shah Rukh Khan and there is an earthy Khan, the masses’ Khan, the entertainer Khan and that is you. You’re a mix of being someone who can be sensitive, vulnerable, action packed and have comic timing at the same time. This makes you a more masses Khan isn’t it? You are a winner. Don’t give me a diplomatic answer.
Salman: I am not going to be diplomatic with you. I know my capacity my capability and I am working on my two percent.

Arnab: Can you explain?
Salman: The amount of work I am putting in is only two percent now. I’ll start increasing later; I’ll take it up gradually. Everyone else is working on hundred percent.

Arnab: You are taking it easy?
Salman: There is too much of hard work. Like Shah Rukh is very dedicated, very hard working. Aamir is ten times more hard working than Shah Rukh can be. Me, I am not. I am chilled out. I like to have fun when I do my movies. I want people to go and enjoy and I want to enjoy myself. You are in the entertainment business; you cannot take this so seriously. This is something that I know. So far, it has worked for me. There will be a time when I’ll start doing serious movies which I don’t want to do.

Arnab: What you want to do?
Salman: I don’t want to do films about people’s everyday problems. People go through that in their day-to-day lives. After that, they come to watch my movie and I make you cry more? It doesn’t make any sense. I want people to come to the cinema to see my film I want them to see how beautiful and nice it is.

Arnab: That’s an honest answer and that’s why you are different. Let me take it this way; Shah Rukh would want to do a ‘Paheli’ or a ‘Swades’, a different kind of movie. Saif would want to do ‘Omkara’. Even John Abraham, who is a junior in the film industry, would want to do a ‘Water’. You have never said that you wanted to do serious, off-beat cinema.
Salman: Why should I? All these guys are there to do it, right?

Arnab: I’d like to take you through some of your quotes and you can explain them to me. “In life, go straight and then turn right”.
Salman: That is something even I don’t understand. ‘In life go straight’ means that go in the correct direction; ‘and then turn right’ means again the right path. So you go straight, the right path, the good path, the clean path.

Arnab: “I m just a kid. Its just that I don’t drink milk any more.”
Salman: I didn’t say that.

Arnab: You didn’t say that?
Salman: No, but it’s a fact that I don’t drink milk. The thing is, human beings will perhaps be the only people who drink milk after the age of six or seven months. I can’t digest milk, I don’t like the taste of milk. Look at animals; they come out, they drink their mother’s milk for 15-20 days and after that, they don’t go back to that.

Arnab: But that quote could have been interpreted as there is nothing wrong to be embarrassed about in having a child like innocence.
Salman: I’m still a kid, dude. I am just 42.

Arnab: You are making me feel like an infant. I heard a quote about your acting, where you said that you didn’t enjoy your acting, that you are there among the masses. I want you to explain this in detail. You say that acting comes straight from the heart. You say you feel the character’s pain. It’s a fairly complex analysis of your own, but at the same time, a straight forward analysis of your acting.
Salman: I say that, but I don’t frame it like that. What I actually say is that I am not an actor. Whatever I learn from life, I try to put in movies. If I hear a good line, I try to put it inside. I cannot say things in a fixed way, I have to say things in my films the way I say them.

Arnab: You must make script writers so nervous.
Salman: No, buddy.

Arnab: Are they used to working with you?
Salman: Yes, they are used to working with me and I don’t change that much. I just give a different meaning and I take it slightly to a different level. If the line is fantastic, I don’t change it at all. Even on screen, I laugh the way I laugh; I am in real life exactly the way I am on screen.

Arnab: In 'Marigold', the entire film is in English.
Salman: Yes.

Arnab: Some people have seen it as your Hollywood debut. How do you see it?
Salman: I see it as I have done an English movie; that’s it. I have done Hindi movies all my life and now I have done an English movie. May be I’ll do a Punjabi movie if I like; may be I’ll do a Chinese movie.

Arnab: If you would be doing an English movie the carefree way you do your movies, do you worry about the accent and the way in which you should say your lines? Do you think about how people will look at you?
Salman: If Arnold Schwarzenegger can get away with his accent and there is Stallone and all these people, they don’t speak with a proper accent.

Arnab: When you are looking at a new audience, do you think about how they are going to look at you, your accent, how they are going to watch you?
Salman: The first question I asked myself is ‘are you going to give that respect that we command?’ I mean Russell Peters is really funny, but everybody thinks that every Asian is Indian or Pakistani, and speaks like that. We don’t. He took incredible amount of care of that and he made us look like the way we look. There was a conscious effort in the back of my mind and basically what I have done is played Prem once again in 'Marigold', what I had done in 'Maine Pyaar Kiya'. If I had to do that in Hindi, I would not be able to carry it off.

Arnab: Why?
Salman: Because that amount of innocence is not there. I am not naive any more, so its not there in my eyes; I would feel silly doing a film like that. It will not gel with me anymore but this film is different. Willard and I are friends and we spend a lot time together so he knows exactly the way I speak so he wrote all the dialogues in my flow.

Arnab: You could improvise on the spot in English?
Salman: He had done it for me so I was ok with it.

Arnab: You said you are not naive anymore. As a person from 1988 to 2000, tell me how has Salman Khan changed as a person? I began by saying that people know you as an actor. But as a person, how have you evolved?
Salman: I’ve just grown mature little by little. I can’t say that I am that smart, I am not smart. My mind doesn’t work nicely. If I have to do something then I can find out a way, that is not a clean way.

Arnab: Which is?
Salman: If I want to do something, I could scheme, I could plan. I could get vicious. It is my conscious effort to control that and not to go on the evil side.

Arnab: Everyone has an evil side.
Salman: I have got tremendous evil which I don’t like. I know what is good, and what is bad. That is my constant battle, constant fight with myself.

Arnab: Can I pick up another quote? When somebody asked you about Paris Hilton, you said “when you are in there, there is no one more important than you. You have handle being alone, you have to love yourself.”
Salman: Being lonely is when nobody wants to be with you, but alone is you’re choice. Being alone is you’re choice. I’d rather be alone than lonely. I have been to jail couple of times. I never got bored of me. The worst part about that is that your family is at home. You’re fine sleeping on a floor, in a small cell with ten-twelve people; you eventually get used to it. Human beings adapt. But what about your loved ones at home. They age a year every two minutes; that is what kills you. When they come to see you, there is a big grill and your parents are on the other side and they start crying.

Arnab: Were you worried that you would have to actually spend 5 years?
Salman: Yes, that’s destiny. I can’t change that. Till the time I am outside, I am going to do the best of things. Even when I come out, I will come out exactly the way I went in because I know I haven’t done any of this.

Arnab: In recent times, there have been two famous incidents of taking shirts off; you’re famous for it. One was Saurav Ganguly and the second was you.
Salman: He shouldn’t have done it.

Arnab: The second was you; there were lot people waiting outside your house and you came out and took off your shirt. I just want to know, what went through your mind and what were you experiencing?
Salman: I know people said that I shouldn’t have done that. They said that since I had just got out of jail, I shouldn’t have taken off my shirt. There was a kid standing down who wanted my shirt, so I gave him my shirt. What’s the big deal. I went inside and wore another one. He’ll keep that shirt for the rest of his life. When I came out of jail, I wore a vest that was given to me by one of the guys inside because all the clothes I took in, I gave to them.

Arnab: Aren’t you surprised that I haven’t asked you about marriage?
Salman: No, because I have said that when I get married, I will tell my fans; I want their blessings. Every time I go out, the only question they ask me is when I’m getting married.

Arnab: Does your family ask you that?
Salman: No, they know that when I’m ready, I’ll do it.

Arnab: Outside your flat, there are policemen and a huge crowd waiting to catch a glimpse of you. Do you come out?
Salman: Yes, I make it a point. Its strange that when I am there, they are there. When I am outdoors, they are not there. Because when I come out, I wave, I blow kisses and then I go back.

Arnab: Where do you stand vis a vis Bollywood?
Salman: First of all, I hate this term ‘Bollywood’ the most; ‘Indian film industry’ is good. Strangely, I am not that much a part of the Indian film Industry. I have a few people I work with, there are friends of mine I have known for 20-25 years. I do my work and come back home. I used to party quite lot earlier, but every time I partied, I got in trouble. So I come back home and I chill at home with my friends and family now.

Arnab: You don’t see yourself as part of this industry?
Salman: No, I don’t see myself as part of the cut-throat competition in the industry; I don’t see myself as a part of that. I see myself as going out, doing a job, and coming back.

Arnab: You almost sound disappointed.
Salman: There is no point. God has given me so much already. Even if he takes everything today, I still have so much; the lifestyle, the adulation, the respect. Whatever is destined for me, I am ready to embrace with open arms.

--Times Now TV