Bollywood superstar Salman Khan on Tuesday claimed that his facial nerve disorder, trigeminal neuralgia, and the debilitating pain that it caused propelled him to work hard and take his acting seriously.
“No matter how much pain you are going through, it made me realise that you can’t put any subtitles — your ligament is torn, you have the flu or that your knee is hurting — in any of your scenes,” said Khan, during the unveiling of his new song called The Radio Song from his Eid release Tubelight in Dubai.
“Your fans don’t care about it and that you really need to give your best on screen. Once it’s printed, it’s lifelong,” said Khan, who pointed that the pain often caused its sufferers to commit suicide.
The actor, 51, who is currently filming for Tiger Zinda Hai in the UAE was accompanied by director Kabir Khan and his co-star and brother Sohail Khan.
The song, which was introduced to the local press with a lot of fanfare, saw Khan — who goes by the name Tubelight because of his simpleton and slow-on-the-uptake nature. It showed the actor dancing after he receives the good news of his brother returning alive from war on the radio. Set in the 1960s against the backdrop of Indo-China war, hundreds of dancers dancing enthusiastically with him and carrying Khan on their shoulders like a rockstar were a part of the choreography.
“Hollywood makes their films on one track, but in our films there’s always music, emotion, drama, heroism and songs are a part of our culture. We don’t want that culture of songs to be separated and I won’t let it happen,” said Khan, who pointed out that the Hollywood hit, La La Land, was largely song-driven with “its 200 songs at least”.
Directed by national award-winning filmmaker Kabir Khan, Tubelight is the third time that unites him with Salman. But their working relationship wasn’t always smooth.
“During our first film Ek Tha Tiger we had issues and debates because we come from different sensibilities. But the reason why we are being appreciated is that we have blended those two. Sometimes, I get too real and Salman pulls me up to go a bit mainstream. I try to put more logic and that blend goes well,” said Kabir Khan.
