‘If the world is against him, we are against the world’
NEWDELHI: “Pray for him,” pleads a Facebook group of Salman Khan’s fans in Bangladesh.
Followed by over 40,000 Facebook users, the group disowned the world in a profile image posted minutes after a Jodhpur court convicted Khan in an almost two-decade-old case of blackbuck poaching and sentenced him to five years in prison.
A Kolkata-based fan club with only 129 members posted a photo of young fans wearing black masks and waving a banner that spelt out their message for their idol. “We are with you, Salman.”
Similar messages have been flooding the Facebook pages of fan clubs spread across India: “Standing with Salman Khan.”; “Keep praying, he is not guilty”; “Damn the judicial system!”
On Twitter too, Khan’s fans expressed faith in him and disregard for the judicial system: “Salman Khan never killed any blackbuck”;” I know for a fact that Salman Khan has not killed the blackbuck”; “To hell with such laws and such system.”
This isn’t the first time Khan’s fans have taken personally a court order holding him guilty of a criminal charge. Predominantly young and male, Khan’s fans have been known for their unshakable belief in the image he projects on and off screen of a man who lives by his rules and is misunderstood by the world.
Jayant Chaturvedi was five years old when he became a Khan fan. “I had just seen the film Hello Brother,” he said. Now 22, Chaturvedi, who lives in a village in Kannauj district in Uttar Pra- desh, is a member of nearly 150 Salman Khan fan clubs on social media. Currently unemployed, he spends all his time posting photos of his favourite star on Facebook and Twitter. “People in my village keep asking me how I, a Brahmin, can love Salman Khan, a Muslim. Even my family doesn’t understand my feelings. I ignore them,” he says.
At 37 years of age, Shan Ghosh is a star in the world of Salman Khan fans. In 2014, he appeared as the leading man in a documentary, Being Bhaijaan, that investigated the effect of Salman Khan’s screen image on young men in small towns. Ghosh and his gang aren’t merely fans of Salman Khan; they live their lives according to the value system promoted by Khan’s screen characters.
Members of a Facebook group in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, these men internalise every trait of Salman Khan’s movie persona: physical strength, moral purity and respect for traditional values.
Currently employed as a Salman Khan lookalike at an amusement park in Dubai, Ghosh continues to lead the social-media network of the actor’s fans and often acts as its spokesperson.
He refuses to speak on the subject of the blackbuck verdict, however. “I will only give an interview if it could change the court’s verdict. I am broken. Today, humanity died again. God is nowhere.”
I will only give an interview if it could change the court’s verdict. I am broken. Today, humanity died again. God is nowhere.
SHAN GHOSH, a fan of the actor The guilty verdict shows whether you are Salman Khan or an ordinary citizen, the facts will be heard by a court and the law will prevail... what others can be sure of is if they commit a crime against an animal, they will be booked, and when PETA India is involved, we will push for maximum penalty. PEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS