This story is from August 26, 2007

Five years? Oh, deer!

Anshul Chaturvedi / TNN / Aug 26, 2007, 00:00 IST

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He is Bollywood’s prodigal whom half the industry loves to hate and the other half can’t do without.

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Trapped : Salman Khan (TOI Photo)As the possibility of Salman serving a jail term gets stronger, Hyderabad Times explores what the man is about, and whether he has got a hard deal because of his star status
THE GOOD BAD BOY WHO DOESN’T GIVE A DAMN...
Half of Bollywood doesn’t talk to him. He drives when drunk and runs people over. The process of his break-up with the prettiest face in Indian cinema involves ruckus, threats and lodging of an FIR. His social communication with his ex-girlfriend’s next leads to the only midnight press conference on SMS harassment that India has seen till date. He beats up journalists gathered to speak to him if he is annoyed.
He hunts what he wants to, either oblivious of the law, or indifferent to it. He asks a judge in a courtroom to hang him instead of prolonging his trial further. And he doesn’t quite see why he should be there when a verdict is being pronounced on a case he’s been battling for years.

That’s Salman for you. Not the sort of man for whom the handkerchiefs would come out spontaneously, unlike the collective gasp of ‘Oh, no!’ that the news of Sanju baba’s verdict evoked so recently. No, Salman ‘Rock Star’ Khan isn’t someone whom you can sympathise with easily.
And yet, just as he has his legions of fans, he has his share of fierce loyalists too. And instances of his generosity to strangers and friends are as much talked about as his quick temper. Friend Govinda has been vocal from the moment he heard the verdict. Salman has a lot of love within him.
He stands by people in their troubled times. He stood by me, in my most difficult times. I can never, never forget what he has done for me. And then adds his perspective that the judge, while making his decision, should keep in mind the amount of social service that this guy does. He does not do all this for show-off, but because of the satisfaction that he gets from it.” It is a fact that Salman’s taken a keen interest in social issues.
The Salman Khan Foundation for children that he set up after winning Rs 50 lakh in KBC, the old-age home in Bandra that he supports and has been visiting for years, the NGOs that he quietly supports financially, the paanwallah who got a bundle of Rs 50 notes from him for giving him a cigarette packet when he was carrying no money, the spot boys and technicians and everyday people who adore him, are testimony to that.
The man is a collection of extremes, driven by the gut, who seems to do things first and think later. It is no surprise that he evokes extreme reactions. And so while the legal battles will go on for some time to come, the fact is that Salman’s verdict has been greeted with as much interest, but perhaps not as much sympathy, as Sanjay Dutt’s, comparisons with which are inevitable.
...But is that a reason to make an example’ of him?
Two obvious contrasts come up in the context of Salman’s sentence. One, the fact that he killed a man and was fined Rs 900 while he has got a five-year sentence for an animal’s death. Two, while daily newspapers bring an increasing number of stories about poaching and trafficking to us, very few people seem to be going to jail for that so is Salman being made a poster boy for the cause? Govinda has a point, even if one that’s been raised earlier, when he says, “I hope that they don’t punish him just because he is a film star.
When the original verdict the one that has been upheld now was passed, the judge had made no secret of the fact that it was an unusually harsh punishment, and that an example was being set. ‘‘We must remember that as a celebrity, we have more responsibilities towards society and must lead by example,’’ he had said, and reiterated that ‘‘he is a hero with a large following, therefore he must present a good example.’’
Be it this case or any other, even if he is a hero with a large following, what does that imply for a criminal trial? He is a hero a hugely popular lead actor which need not be equated with a hero as in a leader of society, a role model. Should actors playing lead roles be expected to live up to higher benchmarks and therefore higher consequences since they are heroes? A cine star, a TV actor or a rock band’s lead singer are all entertainers, made and unmade by the audience, that decides which of them become icons.
Last year, after Salman got bail, Maneka Gandhi had said that the justice system of our country is a victim of the celeb status. Today, a delighted Maneka sees Salman’s conviction as a precedent which will put the fear of God into other smugglers, poachers -- and celebrities. It’s the first case, she emphasises, possibly looking at the next, the black buck case involving Pataudi.
She doesn’t think five years is harsh at all. In fact, this man has got it quite easy. I have filed cases against dozen of people and they have served the maximum term seven years. This guy has gotten away with very little.
However, not all agree that he has ‘got away with very little’. Tito Joseph from the Wildlife Protection Society of India observes,
This is one of the harshest sentences given to anyone for killing an endangered animal in the deer and antelope category. The previous three harshest sentences that I recall were given to Sansar Chand and one R R Sharma both illegal traders who got 5 years each while two people in Nagpur recently got six years for killing a tiger. Till date, India has only seen around 31 convictions for the killings of deer and antelope. While he mulls over these cold statistics, for now, at least, the hunter is clearly the hunted.

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