CAGED TIGER WALKS FREE
The high point of nearly every Salman Khan film is when he rips off his shirt sparking frenzy among Bollywood audiences, but his millions of fans could soon be missing their macho fix.
Khan, son of celebrated screen writer Salim Khan and the undisputed ‘ tiger’ of Bollywood was jailed for five years for shooting endangered wildlife nearly 20 years ago while shooting for Hum Saath Saath Hain.
Accused of everything from killing a homeless man in a hit- and- run to assaulting a former Miss World, prison for poaching rare black bucks is a scenario that few could have imagined for Khan.
But like the earlier brushes with scandal, it is unlikely to wound his reputation. He was granted bail after spending two nights in Jodhpur Central Jail.
Salman Khan’s latest blockbuster “Tiger Zinda Hai” ( Tiger Is Alive) has made $ 85 million worldwide, underpinning his popularity. With Salman’s conviction, around ` 1,000 crore in industry is at jeopardy. Bollywood film industry analyst Komal Nahta said the conviction and any jail term would only delay movies but not seriously harm his career.
According to Forbes, Salman Khan made $ 37 million in 2017, coming in at number nine on its list of the world’s highest paid actors, one position below Bollywood king Shah Rukh Khan.
His 2016 movie Sultan, in which Khan played an ageing wrestler, notched up one of the highestgrossing opening weekends in Hindi cinema history, proving that for his legions of fans the body- building actor known as “Bhai”, Hindi for “brother”, can do no wrong.
Khan has never married, which has only augmented his offscreen aura. “He is a superstar whose films guarantee huge box office numbers,” said Nahta. “A jail term might affect a few films that are in the pipeline. These films can wait as they have not yet begun production and at present it would only mean a loss of time rather than money investment. He has always been the poster boy of the youth population,” filmmaker Nikkhil Advani, who directed Khan in a “Salaam E Ishq”, said.