Bhai's Bad Days

Salman Khan’s conviction in poaching case brought a stream of conflicting opinions

- Priyanka Bhadani

In June 2014, a few weeks before the release of his film Kick, Salman Khan was at Bandra’s Mehboob Studio to talk about his singing stint for the film. Jai Ho, his previous flick, was a flop. Every attempt was being made to make Kick a hit, so much so that ‘Bhai’ (a moniker that has stuck to him over the years) had even sung for the film. He played humble, giving every credit to the music team, and, more importantly, the newer technology—like auto-tuning—that might have made his voice “bearable”. He was happy and calm, posing for pictures and greeting almost everyone with a smile.

A few months later, in September, at the Jet Airways hangar in Mumbai, while giving interviews ahead of Bigg Boss 8, the reality show he hosted, the star seemed very different—visibly restless, shrugging off certain questions and, at times, even snubbing reporters. He was especially dismissive when a photographer from a film weekly approached him for a picture. That July, the star was boycotted by the Mumbai Photographers Association, when a group of photographers were roughed up by Khan’s bodyguards on one occasion. Hence, the indifference. He snarled at the photographer for not standing by the Association’s decision, and told him that he should not have been there to click him. The warmth, that was visible during the promotions of Kick, was missing.

Khan carries a conflicting image. At times, he is too human— as his NGO brand, Being Human, advocates—to be true; and, then, many a times he rubs people the wrong way. In the last couple of years, he has mellowed down. But, all of it has earned him two tags: controversy’s child, and the most misunderstood star.

This conflicting image came to the fore, when he was recently convicted by a Jodhpur court in the almost two-decade-old blackbuck poaching case.