Salman khan, on a recent visit to the capital, talks about why launching star kids is not a cakewalk
Salman Khan
You can love him or hate him, but you definitely can’t ignore him. The bhaijaan of Bollywood, Salman Khan knows how to grab the right kind of attention the minute he enters a place. In his recent visit to the capital to promote the film Hero, he charmed the audience with his quick wit, honesty and unpredictability. Known for introducing several beautiful aspirants to the Indian film industry, Salman — as a good mentor and producer — made sure that Athiya Shetty and Sooraj Pancholi, the leads of the movie who were also present on the occasion, said all the right things in the right ways. Asked if the superstar is launching them because they are the children of his friends, he quickly responded, “Halwa nahi tha! They had to go through a lot of auditions and screen tests for dancing, action and acting, and only after that were they finally cast for the roles. I have many friends who have children, but I have not launched them. To become an actor, it has to come from within you. I have seen their work — they are brilliant at what they do.”
Recalling his own beginnings as an actor, he shared that his father, veteran writer Salim Khan, never suggested his name to producers or filmmakers and made sure that he had to ask others for work. He said, “When I was growing up, my father would recommend Sanjay Dutt, Sunny Deol or Kumar Gaurav to filmmakers who came to our house, but never me. I asked him once, why he doesn’t recommend my name to any of them and he had asked me back, ‘Salman, you see producers coming to our house — have any of them ever asked me why I don’t recommend you?’” He went on, “And then he told me, ‘You need to reach a level where the producers or directors should themselves see the passion and potential in you and ask for you to be taken in their movie.’
That never actually happened for me, so I had to go out and ask for work.” The 49-year-old actor, who has previously lent his voice for playback singing in movies like Kick and Hello Brother, has also sung the title track of Hero. Quizzed about whether one is likely to see him singing more often, he affirmed, “Singing is not my love or passion like painting is. I am just doing it for fun. I can’t sing to save my life — if you asked me to sing the same song right now, I would not be able to do it.”
He further added, “Even if I try to sing it on TV it will not sound the same. However, if I am in a studio and they (the music composers) sing every line in front of me, I can mimic that and sing it.”
Asked if he was thinking about someone in particular while recording the romantic track, Salman playfully avered, “What’s her name? I know you know her name... I just concentrated on her and that’s it. That feeling automatically came from there.” he added on a slightly more serious note, “You concentrate on your sur. If the sur is okay then the technicians will take care of the other aspects. If you get the feel right on top of that, the song turns out to be pretty decent.”
He also joked about how the idea of remaking the 1983 hit movie Hero came to his mind and how he had once suggested that Subhash Ghai make it with him as lead. He revealed, “Subhash ji came to me with a film and narrated it to me. I said ‘sir, don’t do this movie with me but let’s both together do a modern version of Hero. I even suggested some changes in the story line. He did not agree at the time, and we ended up doing Yuvvraaj.”
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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