Being Controversial: The Troubled Life of Salman Khan

Here’s why Salman Khan is called Bollywood’s Bad Boy

(This piece was first published on 10 December, 2015)

Last month I was traveling across Bandra’s popular Bandstand area in an auto-rickshaw. The interiors of the auto was plastered with news clippings of Salman Khan and pictures of the star from a variety of magazines. I ventured to ask the driver if he was a Salman fan and it turned out that he was more than just a fan. Apparently, the actor had financially helped the man to get his daughter’s medical treatment done for a serious condition that she was suffering from.

Aside of the blackbuck shooting case and the hit-and-run case, this is the side of Salman Khan that one constantly gets to hear about from the actor’s admirers, well wishers and friends. Basically those who tag the star as a ‘good-hearted soul, who is always misunderstood’. But the scandal sheets and tabloids give us a different Salman - that of a brash, arrogant and hot headed star.  A cocky guy who will act difficult just to make you feel uncomfortable.

It’s a known fact that most of Salman’s personal relationships have had a pattern of abuse. It began with reports of the actor publicly pouring a bottle of Thums Up over his then girlfriend Somy Ali’s head at a restaurant back in the 90s. Later Aishwarya Rai too is known to have been a victim of the actor’s temper. Her family even registered a complaint in 2001 against Salman for having come to their house drunk and smashed things around. In fact in 2003, when the rumours about Aishwarya and Salman’s relationship continued, the actress was forced to make a public statement, a part of which declared:

The Salman chapter was a nightmare in my life and I am thankful to God that it is over!I stood by him enduring alcoholism and misbehaviour in its worst phases and in turn, I was at the receiving end of his abuse (verbal, physical, emotional), infidelity and indignity.

Aishwarya Rai

More recently while he was seeing Katrina Kaif, there were reports of Salman having slapped and manhandled the actress in public on three different occasions. Though Katrina denied the reports, the magazine which reported the incident stuck to their story.

Salman is also said to have been the man responsible for sending Vivek Oberoi’s career on a nosedive. After Vivek called the press and went public about Salman’s 41 missed calls and threats to him for dating Aishwarya Rai in 2003, the star forgave Oberoi for it many years later, only after he publicly apologized to Salman twice over.

Now try and picture Salman Khan and Subhash Ghai peeing on each other. Because that’s reportedly what happened when the actor had a spat with the showman in a toilet. Gives you an idea of the kind of fights the actor is up for! The two later kissed and made up and Salman even acted in Ghai’s Yuvraaj after this infamous pee fight.

The most popular of all of Salman’s wrangles is his brawl with Shah Rukh Khan on Katrina Kaif’s birthday in 2008. However this was not the first time that Salman and Shah Rukh were at logger heads. Few know that back in 2002, Salman had stormed onto the sets of Shah Rukh Khan’s home production Chalte Chalte where SRK was shooting with Aishwarya Rai and demanded that she leave with him.

There was a showdown between the two Khans and to pacify matters, Aishwarya reportedly left with Salman, which resulted in her being replaced by Rani Mukerji in the the film. After things reached a point of no return following the fracas in 2008, the Khans had a 5 year cold war that ended at Baba Siddique’s Iftar party in 2013.

A glamourous altruist, a misunderstood star or just your normal conceited actor, drunk on power with image consultants working overtime to make him a look like a golden hearted benefactor. Will the real Salman Khan be Dabangg enough to stand up?