Bollywood actor Salman Khan is in the eye of a fresh storm after comparing his gruelling filming schedule with the situation of a rape victim.
Khan, 50, committed the faux pas while answering an innocuous question about his shooting schedule for Sultan, his upcoming drama releasing over the Eid weekend, in which he plays a wrestler.
“I’d have to lift the same 120-kilo guy 10 times for 10 different angles. And likewise, get thrown that many times on the ground. This act is not repeated that many times in the real fights in the ring. When I used to walk out of the ring after the shoot, I used to feel like a raped woman. I couldn’t walk straight. I would eat and then head right back to training,” Khan told entertainment website SpotboyE.com.
Twitter users were quick to take the actor to task for his insensitive comment. In a reference to the negative reactions comedian Tanmay Bhat received for a Snapchat video spoofing cricketer Sachin Tendular and singer Lata Mangeshkhar last month, comedian Dhruv Deshpande pointed out Bollywood’s hypocrisy. “Salman Khan compared his shooting schedule to what a ‘raped woman’ feels like. Is that worse than Lata-Sachin jokes, Bollywood?”
Another user, Amena, felt an apology was called for. “#SalmanKhan fans, please don’t defend his rape statement. It only makes it worse. What he said was wrong and he must apologise for it,” she tweeted.
In other, not-so-grim news regarding the controversial actor, Khan cleared up rumours about being signed on for Dhoom 4 and the sequel to No Entry. In an interview with IndianExpress.com, Khan confirmed that he hasn’t been approached by Yash Raj Films (YRF) and joked that he’d do it only if “Abhishek [Bachchan] and Uday [Chopra] hire all of those people to come and catch me who were in earlier ones, then perhaps I might … but then the climax would be very unfair.”
The Dhoom film franchise revolves around ACP Jai Dixit's (Bachchan) attempts to catch high-profile thieves with the help of his sidekick Ali Akbar (Chopra). In the previous three films, John Abraham, Hrithik Roshan and Aamir Khan have played criminal masterminds, all of whom manage to escape in the end. Khan's comment indicates that if he were to be a part of the fourth instalment, the chase would have to be even more thrilling than in the previous three. While speculations are rife that YRF is keen on signing Ranveer Singh and Salman Khan for Dhoom 4, there has been no official word on casting or release dates from the production house.
Khan also told Pinkvilla.com that he was definitely not going to be a part of No Entry Mein Entry, the sequel to the 2005 hit No Entry, which starred Khan, Anil Kapoor and Bipasha Basu. In March this year, director Anees Bazmee had said in an interview that Khan had liked the script, in which he was to play a double role, but was yet to give him dates, after which shooting would commence. However, Khan's comments fuelled rumours that the movie may be shelved for now.
artslife@thenational.ae
