India’s love affair with Salman Khan continues

Baby-faced son of scriptwriter became a Bollywood hit machine

India fell in love with Salman Khan 26 years ago when he lit up the silver screen in the 1989 blockbuster Maine Pyar Kiya (I have loved). The film went on to become one of the highest grossers at the time making history in Indian cinema.

In the years to follow the baby-faced son of scriptwriter Salim became a ‘hit machine’ and was often referred to as ‘blockbuster Khan’ with producers, directors and co-stars clamouring to work with him from films to 20-second television advertisement slots.

India had found a new kind of hero. He was lean not mean, was on the younger side and overturned India’s belief that sixpack abs were mere mythology.

Born on December 27, 1965, Abdul Rashid Salim Salman Khan has starred in over 100 Hindi films with his latest release last month, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, grossing $60 million (Dh220.2 million).

Despite most of the Indian media trashing the film, it went on to become a runaway success at the box-office, leaving horrified movie-critics blaming Khan’s popularity for its success.

Sallu Bhai (‘Brother Salman’) as he is affectionately known by fans lives in Galaxy Apartments in Mumbai’s plush Bandra neighbourhood. Even though he’s never been married, he has been in several relationships.

In 2010, Khan was made the face of Bigg Boss, the Indian version of the original Big Brother reality show where a number of contestants live in isolation in one big house.

In 2004 Khan was ranked as the 7th best looking man in the world by the US version of People magazine and was later immortalized at Madame Tussauds London with a life-like wax figure. In 2012 New York’s Madame Tussauds followed suit. In 2010 the Indian version of People magazine declared him the sexiest man alive and in 2013, he emerged as the most searched celebrity online.

Last year Khan topped the Indian version of Forbes for being both the most famous and highest paid actor in the country while earlier this year he made it to the Forbes list of top 100 celebrities in the world.

Messy breakup

But Bollywood’s ‘golden boy’ hasn’t been spared bad publicity either: From his messy breakup in 2001 with former Miss World and Bollywood mega-star Aishwarya Rai Bachchan to him being convicted and sentenced to one year in jail in 2006 by a High Court for allegedly shooting two endangered Black Bucks – a species protected under the Wildlife Protection Act.

But his most recent and, by far, his biggest run in with the law has been his 2002 hitand-run case where he allegedly drove over and killed a man sleeping on a pavement and injured four others.

It was only in May last year — 12 years since the incident — that Khan was convicted of culpable homicide and sentenced to five years in prison, but the Mumbai High Court yesterday overturned the decision due to a lack of evidence and acquitted the actor of all charges.