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Life has been a roller coaster: Salman
Rajeev Masand
CNN-IBN
Posted Sunday , October 15, 2006 at 21:14
Updated Sunday , October 15, 2006 at 23:02 |
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Salman Khan is an actor who has remained on top of the popularity charts for over 15-years now. As he went from strength-to-strength, controversies followed him faithfully. For many he may seem like the ultimate contradiction, the bad boy with the heart of gold but for those who know him well, he is quite simply — Salman Khan.
CNN-IBN Entertainment Editor Rajeev Masand spoke to the star about his life, love, Bollywood and much more.
Rajeev Masand: I remember, when you had just started your career as an actor, you told me about this very humble ambition of yours. You wanted to have Rs 10 lakh in your bank account so that you could spend the rest of your life eating on its interest. That was many years ago, do you think you have come a long way since then?
Salman Khan: Yes I have. Somebody had told me that on an amount of Rs 10 lakh, you get Rs 2,000 as interest every month. This I thought would be good enough for me to survive for the rest of my life. Later on I found out it was not true for sure.
Rajeev Masand: So, you are doing very well with the amount of money you are making right now.
Salman Khan: Its quite fine. Even if I had to lose it all, I will be happy that I have at least had the chance to live a most amazing life.
Rajeev Masand: People say that film stars get paid a lot of money. Do you think film stars get over paid?
Salman Khan: Yes, they do get paid a lot of money. As they become more and more popular, the money they get also increases. But still it is a lot less than what people get paid abroad. Our system does not leave room for that much money.
A lot of conning takes place here. The distributors don’t give your due share of money. If they have lost money in a movie they will not give your due share for a film that’s perhaps done well. Once you have sold the film, you basically forget about it. In abroad, they work out the points, backend deals and everything.
Rajeev Masand: So, you are saying if there was transparency, everybody involved in making a film would get paid more money than what they are getting already.
Salman Khan: Hundred-percent. If things were a little more organised, there were more multiplexes, and most importantly if people were honest, everybody would have been making a lot more money. Besides the fans would get to watch films at a lot cheaper rates.
Rajeev Masand: What do you do with most of your money?
Salman Khan: Basically my money goes into the court cases and stuff like that. So I see the money coming in and then going out.
Rajeev Masand: That was funny. Your new movie Jaan-e-Mann is lined up for Diwali-Eid, which is considered as the 'prime time'. On the surface of it, the film looks like a love triangle — a formula that is fairly old in Bollywood. What makes Jaan-e-Mann so very different from all the various love-triangles that you have played so far?
Salman Khan: I wont talk about the music, because every film these days has great music. All my movies are great musicals and have really-really nice music. But technically I think this film is perhaps the most brilliant film of mine. The way it has been shot, the way the scenes have been worked out is absolutely brilliant.
I have worked with so many directors that I do come to know when a director does not know his job. But this guy is so good at his job. He knows exactly what he wants; in fact he confuses us sometimes. He used to be an editor, so he has made this film slick, fast and not boring at all.
Rajeev Masand: Your film is coming at the same time as Shah Rukh Khan’s Don. There are bound to be certain comparisons. What do you have say about that?
Salman Khan: Well, Shah Rukh and I follow two different styles of acting. In fact I never try to ‘act’ in a film. So where is the question of comparison?
I saw Don yesterday. And I felt that if they have made the new film anywhere close to the earlier Don, it would be a very big hit. The action that was used at that point of time was not that good. Though the way they shot the film at that point of time was brilliant. But today, sky is the limit. Shah Rukh has done well in the film. And I think the film will do well. Everything in it, right from the music to action, to the sequences is phenomenal.
Rajeev Masand: Your dad co-wrote the original Don. Keeping that in mind does your outlook changes about the film?
Salman Khan: It is basically my father’s film. The only thing is that it has Shah Rukh Khan in it and Farhan Akhtar is directing it. And Jaan-e-Mann with me in it is coming at the same time. So, I don’t know whether should I pray for this film to do well or otherwise.
Rajeev Masand: All of us lead lives where we do things that we are not so-proud of. At times we even feel if we could just turn back the time. If you were to live life all over again, what is it that you would do differently?
Salman Khan: Nothing because, there is nothing in my control. Like they say, god controls everything in this world and everything in our lives. Then how can I change anything? You don’t even know, what would be the few words that are going to next come out of your mouth, forget about predicting events that will take place in your life.
Rajeev Masand: What makes you wake up every morning and do the same thing again that you have been doing for the past 17-18 years. First of all, you don’t wake up early in the morning, isn’t it?
Salman Khan: I go to sleep very early in the morning and wake up about hour-and-half after that. Even though I work a lot more hours than anybody else, I don’t stop working. I start at around seven in the morning till about ten or twelve in the night. Most of the guys won’t stop working at any cost in this industry.
Rajeev Masand: And you have been doing this job for the last 17-18 years. What makes it so attractive for you?
Salman Khan: For me, its easy because I go with the flow. And I know for sure that I can’t do anything else apart from this. So, I give it my best. And I really enjoy my job because I don’t act. If you take acting as a profession back home, it will be very difficult for you to continue with it. My work doesn’t go with the studios. I see my lines, and I say them just the way I would have said them in real life. And if I don’t believe in them, I won’t say them.
It makes it slightly difficult at times, because there are directors who insist on you saying the lines exactly the way they want. That is of course fair on their part, and we have to do what they say. But that is something that takes a lot.
Rajeev Masand: Do you ever think, had you really loved acting, had you enjoyed playing different characters everyday, you perhaps would have been a different kind of actor?
Salman Khan: I haven’t played any different characters. Whatever characters I have played, basically I have played them in my own capacity and limitations. I played characters just the way I wanted to play them.
Rajeev Masand: You played a mentally challenged guy in Kyunki, and you played it like a funny guy.
Salman Khan: Did I play a mentally challenged guy? Oh yes, I did, but even at that I was being just myself. If you can’t convince yourself that you are mentally challenged, how would you convince people that the character is like that?
Rajeev Masand: So, that is what you like to do. Put a little bit of yourself in each and every character that you play.
Salman Khan: Put myself or may be somebody that I have known and seen in real life. It’s basically more with the lines that come from the real life. I take the clichéd lines out and put words that come from real life in its place. The way we talk in real life, I talk on-screen.
Rajeev Masand: Let’s talk a little bit about your love life. The one part of your life that everyone wants to know about.
Salman Khan: I don’t think so. Everybody finds it really boring.
Rajeev Masand: Have you ever found true love in your life?
Salman Khan: I have always found true love. What is true love? I am asking you that question.
Rajeev Masand: What makes you know that this is true love? You said that you found it.
Salman Khan: I have always found true love. Sometimes it has lasted and sometimes it hasn’t. The love that I have found from my mother, father, brothers, sisters-in-laws, my niece, my nephews and my friends, that is true love. There were girls in my life and I found true love there. Your life journey is your life journey and everybody is a fellow-follower, so there is a time for them to depart and there is a time for me to depart. Their life continues after that and so does mine.
Rajeev Masand: Have you ever had your heart broken? Everyone wants to know, ‘has Salman Khan ever had his heart broken?’
Salman Khan: No, I have never had my heart broken. You live and you die so what are all these things?
Rajeev Masand: So it doesn’t depress you when a relationship ends?
Salman Khan: No, not really.
Rajeev Masand: You are smiling.
Salman Khan: Yes, that’s why I am smiling. It doesn’t depress me.
Rajeev Masand: Do tough guys cry?
Salman Khan: Yes, they do. Woh phoot phoot ke, chilla chilla ke rote hai, jab rote hai to. (They cry a lot when they do).
Rajeev Masand: When was the last time that you cried?
Salman Khan: Some two-years ago when my father bashed me up. I was going crazy, and it didn’t really hurt much. I apologized to him for messing things up and he said its okay. He hugged me and said, “I hope you understand my intentions.” I admitted to what I had done wrong and started crying. That was it.
Rajeev Masand: You have had a couple of high-profile relationships that lasted or perhaps didn’t last. Some of them have been with actresses that you may have run into at studios and other places. What happens when you meet ex-girlfriends? Is it embarrassing?
Salman Khan: I haven’t met any of them yet for me to know it. Even if I do meet them, I would just say “Hey, what’s up? How you doing.” and stuff like that. They are all with somebody else. Some of them got married; some changed way too many boyfriends after we broke up, so it really doesn’t matters.
Rajeev Masand: So, life moves on. Isn’t it?
Salman Khan: Everybody moves on. People die and they are forgotten in a month’s time. When you are growing up it does hurts, but you reach a certain stage when these things don’t matter.
The only thing is that somebody you have known so well spent lot of time with, so much so that it becomes a habit for you and suddenly you find that he is not there anymore.
The person you knew so well won’t pick up your call and then you also cannot call him. When you say hi to him you don’t even know how is he going to react. That is the same person that you knew so well, and now you have to go through this process of unlearning that person so rapidly.
Rajeev Masand: Apart from all the controversies, few people know that you are a ‘photography nut’. You are quite a photography freak. Also you have been painting these days. Is it true that you paint?
Salman Khan: I used to be a photography freak. Yes, I have been painting. Somebody looked at my painting and laughed at it. I used to sketch very well earlier, but I think I need to learn few more basics of painting.
Rajeev Masand: What is some of the stuff that you have painted so far?
Salman Khan: I painted face of a girl whose mouth is covered and only eyes are visible. That’s the way I express sensuality. You don’t need to expose, it’s just the eyes that makes something sensuous. I have made another painting which has Jesus on one side, Lord Ganesha on the other, with Gautam Budhdha and Shivji too.
Rajeev Masand: Is that something that satisfies some sort of creative urge?
Salman Khan: I have been painting stuff with messages, I think.
Rajeev Masand: Before the word metro-sexual was even invented, you wore a sarong for the first time in a film. You were the one to shave your chest for the first time and wear jewellery too. Is that a sign of you being very comfortable in your skin?
Salman Khan: What does it look like? You go to Goa, a lot of people will be found wearing a sarong there. What is a sarong really? It is more like a dhoti, or a lungi. In fact when you wear a dhoti that makes you look even cooler. As far as jewellery is concerned, I wear just a bracelet and ear rings. But that is the Pathan tradition that I follow. My father too wears them. I am a primitive man dude. Everything that I do is from the yesteryears.
Rajeev Masand: You have just completed your first English film Marigold. Are you curious to see where that goes or which direction it takes you to?
Salman Khan: Wherever it takes me, I am not bothered. That is what I thought when I did Maine Pyaar Kiya as well. I am doing Masha Allah very well here. And if it doesn’t work out, let it be. Honestly, I am a lot comfortable in the Hindi film industry. I am not the kind of person who can wake up at five in the morning and go for shooting. I go to sleep at that time. People abroad have these huge contracts.
Whereas I can only sign a contract after I have shot the entire film. But having said all that, I must say that I really liked working in
Marigold. Willard (Carroll), the director of the film knew all my qualities. He actually became a friend of mine. He came home and we went out holidaying together. So, that is how working with him was made easy.
Rajeev Masand: You have not been very ambitious, in terms of working with banners and famous directors. There was a time when people even used to get intimidated and scared by you.
Salman Khan: Why is that? I don’t know any such thing because I never gave anybody such impression about myself. If you are elder to me, I will respect you, if you are younger than me, I have to be respect you because you are younger to me.
If you are the same age as me, then too you are going to be my buddy. If you don’t be nice with me, I will stay the hell away from you. If you are nice to me, obviously I am not going to be act like an idiot with you. There is no way that I’m going to disrespect you.
Rajeev Masand: Finally tell me Salman, what is that something in you that makes you exciting as an actor, now when you are in your 40s, as much as you were in your 20s. You have firmly been on the top for 15-years now. What is the secret behind it?
Salman Khan: Life has been like a roller-coaster ride. I have been there, and I have also seen the lows. But I think for whatever went wrong I was the one responsible for it. Neither my friends nor any of the directors, or even the people wanted to throw me out. I was the one throwing myself out and I don’t know why.
Rajeev Masand: So have you corrected that now, you think?
Salman Khan: Yes I have. But no matter what phase do I go through I always come out of it again.
Rajeev Masand: Thank you so much Salman for talking to us. We wish that you always remain the colourful personality that you have always been.
Salman Khan: Thank you |
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