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(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.
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:
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.
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?
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