Salman Khan

“If one success or one failure makes you gloat or depresses you, then that’s a problem”

By Ankita R. Kanabar

(From the July 18, 2015 issue of Super Cinema)

It’s only human to have pre-conceived notions about someone before you meet them. And imagine if the person in question is Salman Khan? ‘Of course, he’ll have starry airs, he’s Salman Khan! He might be intimidating, so on and so forth,’ are the kind of thoughts that may occur in your head. And then, he enters. I’m sure people who watch his movies at a single-screen feel like whistling at his entry. Guess what? His walk even for real, while he enters, makes you want to do that. In a simple t-shirt and pair of denims, as he settles down to chat in the conference room of a posh hotel, he seems slightly tired. Tell him that, and he responds, “Tired is an under-statement! I’m training for ‘Sultan’ right now, and it’s just a quarter of the training which has started. Now that quarter is only so exhausting.” That ice-breaking point later, you realise he’s more child-like than anyone you’ve met in a while. At least that’s the vibe you get from him, while he cracks little jokes or shares anecdotes from the past, in-between some serious talk as well. After a point, this feels like you’re having a long conversation with someone you know over lunch. Now, over to the man himself…

Evidently, it takes a lot of hard work to maintain what you’ve done for yourself…
The problem is you’re always competing. When you are new, you compete with your seniors; when your films start doing well you have your contemporaries, so you have to work even harder. Later you realise that, you’ve come into the position of seniors and now it’s ten times more difficult. The eventuality is that you’re going to lose. The only way to probably pull it off is to work hard, let your juniors come to the same bracket and then even they’ll become old. (laughs). Then there’ll be a new lot of kids coming in.

Talking about the film of the moment – ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ – what was it that made you come on board as a producer and actor?
The script – I felt it was one of the better scripts we’ve heard. My father also said that they’ve not seen a film like this in a while. It’s the most incredible film for SKF I think, but the problem is, we’ll always be competing with this film while venturing into other projects. That’s the kind of benchmark ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ has set. It’ll be a difficult task to beat that.

Some of your initial films like ‘Maine Pyaar Kiya’ are considered cult even today, and now scripts are specially being written for you. But were you more creatively satisfied then or now?
The creative satisfaction has always been there. It dies off as soon as you lose enthusiasm, or succumb to failure. That failure could either be when your films don’t work, or you don’t know what to do next. When you see a film doing well and you like that feeling, you should work even more for your next. If it doesn’t do well, do not get paranoid of how the next is going to be. If you have that attitude then you’re sorted. If one success or one failure makes you gloat or depresses you, then there’s a problem. You’ll always be like a gas balloon. Some people have one hit and they’re all over the place. But if there’s no bitterness during a failure or light-headedness during a hit then you’re sorted. There should be no insecurity if you know your job.

Do you find a difference in the kind of content made in the 90s and today?
People now say that content is the king, but content was always the king. In fact, in the earlier films, we had a lot more content. Now suddenly people are scared of emoting. The emotional scenes suddenly have become clichés. I don’t know if we are catering from cuffe parade to Andheri or beyond that. But the real Hindustan is beyond Andheri. You may increase the prices at multiplexes and the collections may be big but there may not be a fan following. The fan following will be in the 50-100 rupee tickets.

Even the parameter to evaluate a film’s success has changed over time – from number of days to number of crores. Despite that, do you think earlier films like ‘Andaz Apna Apna’ have more repeat value?
The repeat value for these films is only on television. When it released, ‘Andaz Apna Apna’ didn’t do well, commercially. There is one kind of cinema that you only want to see when you go to the theatre, which is larger-than-life. People would rather watch the sweet films on television – is my belief, I could be totally wrong. So, even if a film does well, it would never cross a particular mark, even though everything about it is spectacular – from the performances to screenplay, dialogue, comedy, action, music. The most important thing is to analyse if the youth wants to go see a film in the theatre. Most films like this wouldn’t cross the 100-crore mark. At that point, 100-crore would be 100 days. ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’ released in 18 theatres only initially and then they released it in more screens. Today if you release a film in 18 theatres, it would stick to that and then come down, because the business is only of one or two weeks. The biggest films run for a month maybe and so many prints are being released. There is a scope for a lot more, but we are not equipped with those many theatres.

So according to you there’s need for more theatres?
Our country can do with another ten thousand plus theatres, right now. The business is growing but there is still lack of theatres. Two big heroes cannot release their films together on the same day. That’s the reason why Shah Rukh and I plan to come on Eid next year and so there is enough time for them to start building more theatres to accommodate so many films. Once we have more cinema halls, then automatically, two films can start releasing simultaneously. Which is why, I’m going to start building small theatres at certain B and C centres where there’s population and not enough theatres that people can afford. We’ll start with one theatre and then have a franchise.  

Because of your body of work and fan following, the audience has expectations from you to do a particular kind of cinema. Does that form a criterion while choosing a film?
Never! I do anything that I like. The criterion is whether I would want to go see a film in the theatre. I have to like it in the first narration and in my head, go back and say, ‘What a film!’ Only if I hear that in my mind, and by four-five people around me, I do it.

Has there been a film you think fell below the audience’s expectations despite you putting in a lot of effort?
I think ‘Jai Ho’ fell below the expectations of the audience and trade. It was a good film, but we ran away from the number game in this. I thought, if we want to cross the 200-crore mark, then let’s do it with a 250-rupee ticket. Just because the money isn’t going from our pockets, that doesn’t mean we’ll increase the price of the tickets. At that point, we did a business of Rs. 126 crore so in that scenario we definitely did well I believe. Obviously, we’d have made more money if we would have increased the ticket prices to 400 or 600 rupees. If we would have done that, then Sohail as a producer would have earned that much more money, so the loss was ours, nobody else’s. But suddenly, we were blamed for the film not working. So, now we’re coming up with normal ticket prices (laughs).

Have you always been watching a lot of movies? Do you also still learn from them?
Before I became an actor, I used to watch two-three films a day. My education has only been watching movies. Now I don’t get enough time for it, so I learn from people around me. The language or the lines I use in my movies are the lines I’ve heard people say. Whenever I feel something is fitting in a script, I use it.

Over the years, has there been any instance where you’ve gotten affected emotionally, or has a character stayed with you?
‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ is the only film where I felt slightly emotional during a few scenes. When I was giving the shots, I knew the whole back-story, or what’s going to happen next, and because of the whole ambience for those 4-5 days, I got emotional. But the moment they would say cut, I would be out of that zone. I don’t take a character’s image back home. I take the nobleness of a character with me. When you’ve taken so much good from a character, you realise that in your day-to-day life, you’re trying to implement a lot of it, so you feel good. But there’s also a flip side. When the niceness of a character stays with you, and you implement that in your real life, you cannot use the same techniques, principles or liberties that the character took on-screen. Because, well it’s real life, with more complications. That becomes frustrating.

So would it be right to say that cinema and the stories you’ve lived, have helped you evolve as a person?
Always! In fact, even before getting into the film industry, I used to get influenced by characters, and real people. I get influenced by real life stories as well – of people who’ve come from nowhere and achieved so much through their hard work. I don’t understand people who say nobody did anything for me. Nobody is going to do anything for anyone; you have to do it for yourself. People have come from the interiors of India and made it so large. How can people come out of those places so many years ago and make it so big. Once you are successful, only then you’ll get things. I’ve realised that, the person who already has everything will only get it all. I remember there was a point when, I used to haggle for 15000 rupees, when I bought a car in the initial days of my career. At that point of time, I needed a car and nobody gave it to me, today I don’t need it and car companies tell me to come, pose with a car and take it. So you have to get yourself to that position. Nobody should ever blame others. If you’re not doing anything for yourself, why should anyone do it for you? People will start backing you up when they see that you’re hard-working.

From haggling for a car to now, you’ve come a long way…how have you stayed away from being complacent at any point?
Success has made more failures than failure itself. It’s easy to act when you’re successful, but after that, you get monotonous, cocky, repetitive, over-confident. That is something one shouldn’t indulge in because it’s seen on-screen and isn’t attractive. When you have a failure you need to realise that you have to pull up your socks. This game has been with me for a long time. I’ve worked hard, seen success, starting taking things lightly and then again there’s a failure. So, I would work hard again and come back. Then I thought, why should I do anything that’ll lead to me going down? Let’s not leave that chance only, because, how many years can one work for? All the roles after 70 years will be around the main character, which will still be the hero, post which I will still work for 60-70 years more (laughs). But, on a serious note, I also think I lucked out. I never thought I would be sitting here someday.

If I mention the name ‘Salman Khan’, every person will have a different opinion of you. In a scenario where there are so many perceptions or interpretations about you, how do you not let that affect what you think about yourself or how you want to be?
There’s nothing much that I can think of myself. Every time I think that this is something I’ll never do, I end up doing it. When someone else is doing something you feel it’s so wrong, but when you do it, you feel there’s no other way, you had to do it. One can never say never. Every time when you look back, you keep on growing. You think that you’re wise and doing the right thing as of now, but one year down the line, you will think, you were a fool last year. Someone reminded me that I wanted to start a charitable trust before ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’. So, that thought was always there. The work of ‘Being Human’ was already done by my family in my growing up years. This year you feel you’ve done good work, and next year, you will think, ‘thoda zyada kar lena chahiye tha.’ It’s an ongoing process, that’s how you grow.

There may or may not be yourself in a character you play, but when you write or paint, does it reflect your personality? Or rather, is it therapeutic?
What I try to do with my painting, is that I try to shun away the hatred. At that point, I feel that nothing is worth fighting for. I derive positivity out of it.

Lastly, you have one of the biggest fan followings one has ever seen…how do you really react to all of it?

The only way to reciprocate to their love is by appreciating them. And how do you appreciate them? By trying your best to ensure that the audience enjoys your film when they go to see it. You cannot let them down when they spend money to watch your film. The common man has only one source of entertainment, even in that, the price at multiplexes is high. To add to it, there’s entertainment tax, which just goes on increasing. When a film is releasing, so many people work on it and earn their livelihood from it. The influence we have on the common man is so high, there’s so much positivity that when an actor stands from a constituency, they don’t ask hi what caste does he belong to. So, we can only be grateful to the audiences, and not let them down. 

Shraddha Kapoor

“From not being offered any films, to actually having films in my kitty feels good”

By Ankita R. Kanabar

There’s never a dull moment when you meet Shraddha Kapoor. The glitter in her eyes has gone up from what one had seen before ‘Aashiqui 2’. In just a short span of time, she’s come a long way. Subsequent hits, and some note-worthy performances later, Shraddha Kapoor continues to have her humility and innocence intact, and hope it remains that way. Being as vibrant as the yellow jacket she’s wearing, the actress talks about the fresh success of ‘ABCD 2’ and how the perception towards her has changed over time…

Has your love for dance gone a notch higher during the journey of ‘ABCD 2’? 

Yes my love for dance has grown more, for sure. Before that I would love dancing in the sense that I would dance in front of the mirror and, and participated in annual day functions at school while growing up. But during the process of ‘ABCD 2’, I fell more in love with it, because I feel there’s a new connect with dance which has come about. When your film has a real life story attached to it, and you play such a character, it just adds another dimension to your love that’s already existed.

As a person, you have this adventurous streak…did that help for a film like this which must have been quite demanding physically?
Yes, I love doing adventurous things, and I think a certain degree of adventurous streak in nature would definitely be required for a film like that. Probably, that’s also something that helped. But it was quite demanding. We literally lived at Remo sir’s studio – we ate, drank, slept, breathed dance for those few months. I think, we were all obsessed with ‘ABCD 2’, so much so, that my brother was actually telling a friend of mine that he would only see me in rehearsal clothes at home all through the film. Now when I think of it, I realise that I actually wasn’t wearing my jeans at that point. My jeans was gathering dust during ‘ABCD 2’ days (laughs).

When you heard the script, or perhaps, when you saw the film yourself, what did you think of it?
It’s weird but when I saw ‘ABCD 2’, I felt what I’d felt during ‘Aashiqui 2’. I felt like it’s going to touch people’s hearts and will connect to the audience. That’s what has happened, so it’s nice. I also thought it was important for the film to have a connect with the audience, so that it would open a door for dance films in India.

And are you still gathering compliments for the film?
(Smiles) Adi sir (Aditya Chopra) sent me a very sweet text saying he is proud of me, Karan and Sajid Nadiadwala called. Adi sir has also messaged me after ‘Aashiqui 2’ which meant the world to me, but yes, it’s the first time Karan and Sajid sir called and they said some very nice things. They said that the hard work is showing which I thought was the most meaningful compliment. My father was surprised to see me in the film, because he thought I looked like one of the dancers only. So, I was really touched to hear these things.

Interestingly, all your characters so far have been simple enough to have a connect with the audience. You’ve not played the quintessential, glamorous Hindi film heroine. Have such choices been a conscious decision?

Sometimes you think of things that you don’t even understand or realise completely, if that makes sense. Subconsciously, I felt like everyone would relate to these characters, and somewhere a part of me wants to probably experience a journey of such characters because they are so different from who I am. I’m born and brought up with a silver spoon. I’m blessed that way. During my growing up years, my father would think ten times before sending me somewhere in a rickshaw. I would literally fight with me to let me travel in a rickshaw. I’d be like, ‘so what if I’m a famous person’s daughter?’ Probably because I’ve had a protective upbringing somewhere, I feel like I want to play characters, or have journeys in my films which I wouldn’t have in my real life.

And apart from having a protective life, how else was it being Shakti Kapoor’s daughter?
I used to think it’s very cool. I would feel good about it because all the boys would think ten times before acting smart with me. There were very few daring boys who sort of came and proposed to me despite knowing who my father is.

I remember telling you earlier that ‘Aashiqui 2’ was more like your quintessential Hindi cinema debut. But do you think the perception of the audience and the industry towards you has also changed post that? To add to it, you’ve had back-to-back hits...
You’re right! A lot of people felt that ‘Aashiqui 2’ was my first film. In fact, I’m so tired telling people that it’s not my first film that now I just say thank you and smile. Now, I don’t often go through the effort of telling people that I did ‘Teen Patti’ and ‘Luv Ka The End’ during ‘Aashiqui 2’. I wish people remembered those films also, but then ‘Luv Ka The End’ was a smaller budget film, with a smaller reach, and with ‘Aashiqui 2’, the music, story and characters left a mark on people. So, perception wise, I feel that people are offering me more films now. From not being offered any films to actually having films in my kitty feels good. So definitely, that shows there’s a change in how people see me. You somehow just know people who truly respect you and your work. You can see when someone’s genuinely interested in working with you.

So now has the situation reversed? Do you chase work or are you chased for films?
I think if I really want to be a part of a film, I’ll chase it down. I think I’ll make sure I do everything in my power to be a part of a film. I will not have a second thought about calling a producer or director, if I know a film is going to be made or something. That’s actually how ‘Rock On 2’ and ‘Haider’ happened. I got to know from someone that they wanted to meet me, so I said, I’ll call them and say I want to meet them. Eventually, you don’t want to waste time and lose out on a precious film.

With the influx of so much young talent in the industry, all at once, do you believe in healthy competition?
I consider people who I admire as healthy competition. For instance, I am very fond of Parineeti and Alia. Parineeti is such a fantastic actress, and Alia is also so amazing on-screen. And we are also friends so even if there’s competition, it’s nothing more than healthy competition.

Your singing has also been appreciated, so any plans of coming out with a single?
No plan for a single as of now, but it should be fun doing that. Right now though, it’s important to focus on my films, because both ‘Rock On 2’ and ‘Baaghi’ because they’re both going to start in a month’s time. Plus I’ll be singing all the songs in ‘Rock On 2’. So, as of now, there’s no time for a single. In fact, I’ve just finished recording for ‘Bezubaan’ unplugged, I was supposed to do it before the release but we just got tied up with promotions. Now it’s time to switch off from ‘ABCD 2’ and focus on these two films.