Salman Heads to US for Medical Treatment
even as he edges out Suriya for the title role in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s ‘Karna’.
Salman Khan is suffering from a relapse of trigeminal neuralgia, an extremely painful facial nerve disorder which needs immediate attention. The star is expected to go to the USA for treatment as soon as he completes Dil Raju’s film with Nayanthara.
Salman was first diagnosed with the disorder, often called ‘suicide disease’ because of the intense pain it causes, in the early years of this millennium. He endured the pain for seven-and-a-half years before undergoing a successful Gamma Knife procedure in the USA in 2011.
The surgery, an advanced, non-invasive radiation therapy, took 8 hours and successfully stopped the nerve pain signals. But now, the condition is back and Salman plans to leave for USA at the earliest to have it addressed.
In the past, the actor has openly discussed managing co-occurring neurological conditions like brain aneurysms and arteriovenous malformation.
MEANWHILE
The Bollywood superstar seems all set to play Karna in director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s grand, two-part epic movie based on the Mahabharata hero. Tamil star Suriya was in advanced talks to play the title role, which would have marked his major Hindi cinema debut. However, that casting didn’t work, as Suriya’s market-reach was not seen as wide enough to justify the project’s budget. And the role is now Salman’s.
