SALMAN JUST WANTS TO BE AN ACTOR RIGHT NOW

Salman Khan might be many things: Actor, singer, producer, humanitarian. But one thing he doesn’t want to be is a director, says the actor in a candid chat with Lita Chakraborty

Super suave, dynamic and larger than life is how one might describe Salman Khan. Given his persona and the attention that he commands anywhere he does, the description seems apt enough. He is busy ‘racing’ ahead in his career, apart from hunting for a leading lady for his upcoming film Bharat. Singer, producer, humanitarian, actor — Salman Khan has his hands full. But one thing he is clear about, he has no plans of sitting in the directors chair. Excerpts from the interview:

Your have your finger in every pie, in terms of script writing, music and everything. Any plans of becoming a director?

I actually wanted to start off as a director, but I didn’t get work, so I’m slightly cheesed off with that! (laughs) But jokes apart, I just want to be an actor right now. I just want to give it my best. There’s a lot that goes in to be a director. When someone gets a script before the making of a film, to improvise it is easy. You can give it a different perspective, add songs, isko yahan se yeh karo, music ke lyrics thoda change kardo. But to create it from scratch is the most difficult thing to do. So ya, there is a contribution but everyone gives that contribution — from the technicians to the assistant writer to the assistant choreographer, all the assistants and their assistants and so on. So filmmaking is not ek aadmi bana raha hai. It is huge amount of contribution from every one — from the guy who is doing the CG work to the guy who is doing your special effects to your background score to everything, every technical person, creative person is contributing for you to see the superb final result. It’s not a one man job.

But you don’t plan to direct in the future? No.

What is the magical formula of Salman Khan?

Again, there is no magical formula. I just think that the ‘connect’ with the youth should be there in every film. And the story line should be very simple, not complicated. It should be a film that the whole family can come and watch for an outing, it should be a film that you don’t have to be embarrassed and turn around. So this is the kind of films that I kind of try and achieve.

How are you in real life? Do you get nervous before the release of a film?

No! I don’t let the pressure get to me. I just hope that the film does well so that the industry grows. It’s a good feeling when a film has done well. When a film does not do well, you feel like you’ve failed the audience …that they have put in so much money to watch the film and it has not worked well. When a film does well, you know it immediately. The audience comes out of the theatres screaming, yelling, having fun, whistling and you know ki yeh log khush hain. It is that khushi that makes you feel good.

Though Tubelight didn’t do well, I liked you in it. Would you do an offbeat film like that again?

Ya, it was a beautiful film, but it was a wrong release. Let’s see…