Like sheer korma for Eid: Salman

Salman Khan is Bollywood’s Sylvester Stallone. Like the Hollywood macho man who bounced back with The Expendables this year, Salman is already riding the crest of Bollywood’s biggest wave in 2010 with his brother Arbaaz Khan’s Friday release Dabangg.
The memories of the flops that were Veer this year, and Main Aur Mrs Khanna and London Dreams in 2009, are already forgotten. His resilience, like his generosity, is legendary in Bollywood.And now his faith in himself is ready to pay off. “Dabangg is entertaining,” he says with that gut instinct that he has a winner on Friday, “there’s heroism in the action. But there’s no formula for success, I do my work to my fullest ability, nobody knows what’s going to happen on September 10. But by and large, I’ve been lucky with Eid releases...”
That he has, remember Boney Kapoor’s Wanted last Eid? But Salman’s also been more lucky with action than romance and comedy, though Dabangg has all of this in equal measure. He prefers to talk about the action, because only in Salman Khan’s case, his on-screen and off-screen image are the same for fans. This time, he trained for the action. “It was very strenuous, bahut mehnat kiya,” he admits.
And the training involved stretching his 40-plus body to the point that aches and pains made it difficult to walk, but yet he had to open up and go on set. “And just when you gave the shot and got off the set to relax, you were told, arrey baba... the next one’s coming up,” Salman remembers with groan.
But, he put in 65 days of action... 50 of which went to film the climax itself. “It takes time to set up this kind of shot, where there are cannons blasting, cars flying, bullets whizzing all around,” says Salman, admitting, “I took a lot of chances in Dabangg, there was the possibility of getting hurt in every shot, but we rehearsed and took precautions... because earlier, you did this kind of action, and 100 per cent you would end up with fractures, ligament tears, a screwed up neck.”
But he was fully involved in the production, because this was brother Arbaaz’s film, and the sensibilities on the sets were the same. And though the brothers argued on the sets, in Dabangg, they have managed to produce a film that is going to be the Sheerkorma for Salman Khan fans this Eid. Bon appetit!
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