Bollywood director Kabir Khan and actor Salman Khan have no qualms admitting that they don’t subscribe to each other’s sensibilities when it comes to films.
While the rakish actor, 51, is a poster boy for mainstream Hindi cinema powered by logic-defying entertainment and heroic antics, the Indian National Award-winning director Kabir, who began his journey with documentaries, likes to keep things realistic.
So making their two worlds meet and creating a film like Tubelight, out in the UAE on June 22, was nothing short of a herculean task.
“Two different schools of thoughts… We clashed a lot initially,” said Kabir with a shake of his head, while the relatively less articulate Salman kept repeating the phrase “hugely different” to stress the creative divide between them.
But Tubelight, a tale of a simpleton who tries to understand the implications of the 1962 Indo-Sino war as his brother, a soldier (his real-life brother, actor Sohail Khan) goes to fight his enemy, isn’t their first film together. It’s their third union after their gargantuan hits Bajrangi Bhaijaan and the spy thriller Ek Tha Tiger. Doesn’t five years of working together count for something?
“There was a lot of conflict in our first film and we had a lot of debates, discussions… and that’s why I say a hugely successful film was not 100 per cent in my grip,” said Kabir, alluding to their 2012 blockbuster Ek Tha Tiger.
“But the struggle was important because we understood each other post that. We realised that either we let our sensibilities clash or we make them blend so that we get the best of both worlds. In a way that’s what happened in Bajrangi Bhaijaan. I want logic, a character with a certain coherence, while he wants it to be mainstream, larger-than-life storytelling,” said Kabir.
While the director sugarcoats their artistic disparities, the superstar doesn’t dress it up as nicely.
“I keep on pulling him up,” said Salman.
“I am not in serious movies that I wouldn’t watch myself. If I want to give a message then I will just text [SMS] and I am not going to spend two and a half hours putting my message on screen,” said Salman, who’s notorious for his law-breaking antics and his waspish remarks.
This time last year, the actor sparked outrage when he compared the preparation for his role as a wrestler in the 2016 Eid release Sultan to feeling like a raped woman.
While the actor immediately retracted his quote — “When I used to walk out of that ring, it used to be actually like a raped woman walking out” — a formal apology is yet to come from the actor. His father apologised, but the actor has maintained a steadfast silence on it. This journalist’s attempt at asking the actor about the issue was met with defiance during another press junket.
It’s safe to say that in largely star-driven Bollywood, the son of scriptwriter Salim Khan calls his own shots. His colleagues worship him, his fans have sworn allegiance to their hero and his co-stars, mostly women, are quick to sing praises and describe him as a gentleman.
His personal life — brush-ins with the law, allegations of physical abuse — may leave him with a checkered past, but his choice of roles in his hit films paint a wholesome, good-guy image.
Consider Chulbul Pandey: even if he is a corrupt cop in the hugely successful Dabangg series, his character has a heart of gold and is inherently a do-gooder. So are his roles a way of overcompensating for his messy personal life? Is it an attempt at shaping a certain brand image so that his detractors forget his murky past?
“I just took on the film because it was a beautiful film and the character is a noble character. That is the only reason. It is simple and you need not always kick high and fight off villains to be a hero. Tubelight is the simplest and the most endearing person you will ever see,” said Salman.
Set against the backdrop of 1960s against the India-China war, Salman plays the central character who’s childlike in his understanding of the world. He isn’t cynical about the harsh realities of war and he has a childish enthusiasm for everything around him. While the small children bully him for his simplistic — perhaps even stupid — nature, Tubelight is above criticism and finally wins over everyone with his impish charm.
Director Kabir also shoots down the idea that his films are an exercise in sculpting Salman’s flawed image. He claims that after the action-filled Ek Tha Tiger with Salman, he was genuinely bored of that genre and was itching to try something new. Their second film was Bajrangi Bhaijaan, a tale of a pious simpleton in India and his attempts to unite a six-year-old Pakistani girl with her parents by crossing the Indo-Pakistan border without proper travel documents. The film was a triumph of human spirit that transcends the rivalry between India and Pakistan.
“It’s always the story that leads to my characters, not the other way round. I never go: OK, now let us create a simpleton Salman Khan and weave a story around it. Tubelight was a film that was triggered when I saw the film called Little Boy. That’s how this story began… I never consciously tried to create a brand for Salman,” said Kabir.
A bit of brand management wouldn’t hurt for this flop-proof superstar. In 2015, the actor avoided imprisonment when a high court in Mumbai suspended Salman’s sentence for a 2002 hit and run conviction, pending his appeal. A lower court earlier sentenced the actor to five years in prison for driving him SUV over homeless people sleeping on a sidewalk, killing one and injuring four others.
But it’s not blood, but a blockbuster that’s on his hands. The actor claims it’s not the first time that he has attempted to do those Mr Nice guy roles.
“If you see my films Hum Aapke Hai Kaun or Hum Saath Saath Hain, all these roles showed me as a simple, boy-next-door. It worked hugely. So when you come out of a movie thinking you want a brother like that or a boyfriend or a son like that, then the film is a hit,” said Salman. His understanding is spot-on because the actor has enjoyed a bull run at the box office with a majority of his Eid releases striking gold.
“Sohail [Khan] is playing my brother in this film just like in real life. So the scenes were such that I could relate to it all due to my personal life with him. I would automatically get tears in my eyes. If you see the film then you would get tears in your eyes too. The tears just rolled down. If there was another actor, it would have been acting. Out here it was just pure emotion,” said Salman. His face and words seemed earnest enough, but having him smoke into my face was a tad distracting and eroded some of this nobility.
He even adds that he has come up with a strategy.
“So what I do now is that since the characters I play are so normal, when I finish the movie, I take a little bit of that character and keep it within me. If I can play it onscreen, I desperately try to play it in real life too,” said Salman.
Don’t miss it!
Tubelight releases in the UAE on June 22.
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DID YOU KNOW?
Salman Khan is the one who prodded Katrina Kaif, his colleague and former girlfriend, to sign on New York with director Kabir Khan.
“Katrina didn’t want to do New York and so I said I have seen the guy’s work,” said Salman, adding that he approved of Kabir’s technical expertise.
Salman Khan wanted to do the Taliban escapee role in Kabir Khan’s first Bollywood venture, Kabul Express. Kabir had offered him the hero’s role and not the antagonist.
“He [Kabir] thought I was joking and he didn’t come back to me, so that [Kabul Express] didn’t happen.”
Documentary filmmaker Kabir Khan isn’t shy of working with newcomers, despite having a catalogue of films that boasts big stars.
“There is no absolutely no denying that Bollywood is star-driven. There’s no denying that a film with a big star will get much more attention and would travel much farther… The most powerful medium in our country is mainstream cinema. And a mainstream cinema with a big star is as big as you can get,” said Kabir Khan.
