SALMAN: I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN LUCKY

I have always been lucky

SANYA Malhotra shares her on-screen avatar of Shakuntala Devi’s daughter Anupama Banerji in Vidya Balan-fronted film on the math genius

SALMAN Khan may have started out as a lanky, wide-eyed romancer in 1989 release Maine Pyar Kiya, but he now holds the title of Bollywood’s bhai due to iconic films like Dabangg and Bajrangi Bhaijaan.

However, despite putting in 30 years of hard work, the actor credits his resounding success to luck. “It is because I have always been lucky. Even before Maine Pyar Kiya was released, I started modelling and I was doing well in it,” says the actor as he settles on a couch after addressing his fans at the launch of 13th season of the TV reality show Big Boss. Since then, the actor has topped the Forbes India chart for both fame and revenue and was listed seventh as the World’s highest-paid actors in 2015. But Salman confesses that it wasn’t his dream initially. “My life ambition was to earn 10 lakh rupees so that life can go well and I can live a happy life. But it just increased and I am accepting it,” says the actor, who was the first to enter the `100 crore club in 1994 with Hum Aapke Hain Kaun. His 100 crores treak continued with Wanted, Ready, Bodyguard, Dabangg and Dabangg 2, Jai Ho, and Ek Tha Tiger, and even escalated into the `300 crore club with Bajrangi Bhaijan and Sultan.

Although film business is unpredictable, most of Salman’s films have managed to rule the box office, which is why the actor will never be seen worrying about box office collections and competition. “I am not in any competition; I would rather focus on films that I want to do,” insists the actor, and reasons that we have fewer theatres than what actually we should have. “We still are about 20,000 theatres below what we should have. The day we will have them, the first day collections will go to `1,000 crores, because there will be enough screens to show all the films,” he explains.