★ The Front Row: I’m Happily Unmarried, Says Salman Khan !

★ The Front Row: I’m Happily Unmarried, Says Salman Khan !

December 14, 2012


One of Bollywood’s biggest stars, Salman Khan, tells Anupama Chopra about non-acting, creative blocks, and why he can’t find a partner. Edited excerpts from their conversation on “The Front Row.”

Anupama: Your approach to acting has been famously described as non-acting. But what is “non-acting”? Does it mean that you are casual about your work or that you work very hard to make it look effortless?

Salman Khan: Have you seen a duck gliding smoothly on water? Does it ever look like it is paddling furiously underneath the surface? I don’t have to show that I am working very hard. There is, I believe, a gift. Something comes to me at the last moment when I am doing a scene and I am like ‘ek minute, yeh daal dete hai’ (let’s add this to the scene). And so far that has been working for me.

Anupama: Salman, do you ever suffer from a creative block? What if this last moment inspiration doesn’t come to you?

Salman: There are actors who can pull of a writer’s lines; I am not competent enough to do that. I have to change it quite a bit. But sometimes there are lines that I can’t say at all. They’ll look very false on me. They will look like I am not convinced saying that.

Anupama: Give me an example, what is a line that Salman Khan can’t say?

Salman: I mean clichéd lines. Like I will not be able to say “Main tumse pyaar karta hoon” (I love you). So I change just a little bit here and there so that it looks natural. My father gave me a very simple line that I knew was not in my flow. I think it was in “Pathar ke Phool.” I don’t remember what the line was. It was one line but I got stuck on that line for the whole day! It just wouldn’t come. I had to call him up and say, ‘Daddy change karo isko! (this)’ (laughs)

Anupama: Salman, I saw “Ek Tha Tiger” first day first show at a theater. When you walked into frame, we couldn’t see your face, it was just your silhouette and the theater erupted into applause. Do you ever think about why the audience loves you so much? Do you ever introspect?

Salman: I have no idea. I think perhaps that they think I am one of their own. I guess I don’t take my stardom too seriously. I think I am one of the guys. I have no idea what the connect is but there is a connect. Sometimes when I have a bad cold and I want to be left alone, I say ‘Jao yaar, pakao mat!’ (Go away, don’t bother me!) and that is because I have never been anything else except for myself. They know that this is what I am. If I am in a good mood I will be nice with them and if I am in bad mood I will have that frown. I don’t know what it is, whatever it is I hope that it lasts.

Anupama: Salman as you have become successful, have your insecurities become smaller or have they gotten bigger because now you have to sustain the success?

Salman: There is responsibility. Sometimes even if you are doing the right thing and you are putting your foot down for the right thing, you have that guilt in you that ‘I hope I am not using my power’. Right now, I put my foot down on the edit. The final edit is going to be mine. Nothing is going to go out without my approval. So if the film is a disaster that blame should come on to me. If the film is a hit then everyone shares the success. If it is going to be a disaster then it might as well be because of me, not because of somebody else. If it is a flop film and that is because of me, perhaps I can survive that and work with that director once again. Otherwise that director has no chance. I am not going to work with him, the film has not done well, nobody else is going to work with him.

Anupama: Salman how difficult it is for you to sustain a relationship given your mythical status at this point. How do you nurture a relationship or even find a partner?

Salman: I don’t go out anywhere. I don’t go to nightclubs, so meeting somebody in the nightclub is out of question. I have not gone to a mandir or masjid in a very long time, not for any other reason but people get distracted and distract other people who are praying. So where would I find them? I am home all the time. So I need to start going out I think.

Anupama: Is it hard to sustain a relationship given the fishbowl you live in?

Salman: No, not really because I don’t think I am Chulbul Pandey or Tiger. I am a guy who has played them and the rest of the team has made them larger than life. So that is not me.

Anupama: Your father Salim Khan said in an interview that “Marriages are emotional accidents in life, you cannot keep thinking about it, you just enter it.” Would you agree?

Salman: Yes, totally.

Anupama: Do you think about marriage? Is it something that’s on your mind?

Salman: No, I think about not getting married. I was close to getting married a long time ago. But it didn’t happen and since then it has not been happening. It is jinxed and I am very happy. I hope this jinx continues. I am very comfortable in my own space now.

Watch “The Front Row with Anupama Chopra” today at 8:00 pm on Star World for the full conversation with Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan and the review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. For more details on the show log on to our website, follow us on twitter @thefrontrow2012 and on Facebook.



WSJ