Bollywood superstar NZ bound
One of the world’s biggest celebrities is heading for New Zealand, yet many Kiwis won’t know his name.
Salman Khan is a Bollywood superstar and is set to perform at Vector Arena on April 21.
With 34 million Facebook followers the actor, singer and television personality is arguably bigger than any Hollywood celebrity.
Bollywood, the term for India’s enormous movie industry, is the most prolific producer of film in the world in terms of productions released and people employed.
Khan will perform musical stage show Da-Bang in Auckland along with six other Bollywood stars as part of a world tour.
Promoters Samuel and Deepa Sen said the 51-year-old is the biggest star in Bollywood.
Samuel has brought Bollywood events to New Zealand since the 1990s through his company RS Promotions - and was involved with Khan’s performance at the Logan Campbell Centre in 1996.
Khan was a perfectionist which made the logistics of DaBang intricate and challenging, Samuel said.
‘‘The way he’s rehearsing and everything, he’s not compromising on it.’’
At the start of March Samuel travelled to India for meetings in relation to the event and even got to meet Khan.
He said he was amazed at his humility and endearing personality.
Despite a tumultuous past, Samuel said Khan was a compassionate person and gave away a lot of his profits through his charity Being Human.
’’He gives opportunitys to the underprivileged.’’
Da-Bang will be performed in English and Hindi, but English speakers won’t have much difficulty following it, Samuel said.
‘‘The way this show is designed, it just doesn’t cater for Indians.
‘‘Anyone can come and enjoy it.
‘‘My son is seven and my mother is 68, they are both fans.’’
Bollywood is one of the biggest film producers in the world in terms of the number of people employed and the number of films produced.
In 2011 more than 3.5 billion tickets were sold across the globe which in comparison is 900,000 tickets more than Hollywood.
Bollywood produced 252 films in 2014 out of a total of 1969 films produced by Indian cinema.