Emotion is the main thing behind action: Salman

Sikandar essentially means ‘conqueror’ (the title of the illustrious Prithviraj Kapoor super-hit). At a media meet with Salman Khan, earlier this week, he conquered everyone’s heart with his warm, cool and genial manner.

Excerpts from the interview:

His family-oriented persona has always stood out, so what have been the influences that have fostered this?

“All that comes from experiencing just pyaar, mohabbat! Mom and dad (Salim Khan) came from different cultures and religions, but it was never a Hindu-Muslim angle with them. My father was from the film industry, so my maternal grandfather had that problem. And he met him only five years after their marriage, after Sohail was born! All our thought-processes come from family and friends, and today, dad’s friends, my friends and my brothers’ friends are all buddies with each other. Then there were influences that were negative, and you come to know their intentions and keep them at a distance.”

Salman is known for “mass” cinema. How does he define that?

“I think the lines are blurred now. We now hear whistles and applause even in multiplexes. But the system of black-marketing tickets that exists in single-screens saw people buying tickets for Rs 1,000 or more. I strongly believe that such people should watch movies in multiplexes. But they still prefer to go to single-screens because they really enjoy the experience there. I personally do films whose first narration I like, and not think mass or class.”

The south Indian stars always look up to Salman as a superstar whose films they love watching.

He smiles genially and says, “NTR Jr, Prithviraj, Ram Charan — they have all grown up in front of me. I have known Venkatesh really well for more than 30 years. Chiranjeevi garu and I did an ad together. I have worked with a lot of south directors too, like Suresh Krishna, K Murali Mohan Rao, K S Adhiyaman and others — I was the first to do so from my generation.”

Salman has a high opinion about directors from the South: “Technically and emotionally, they are very advanced. And they don’t make films inspired by others. They bring their own, and usually new things into their films.”

This is Salman’s first movie with south whizkid A R Murugadoss, whose first two Hindi films were ‘Ghajini’, the first-ever Rs 100 crore film, and ‘Holiday’. How was Salman’s experience with the director, who specialises in new angles to action all the time? “Action always means fighting. But what is the emotion behind that? That is the main thing, and that’s what Murugadoss believes in, and that is the kind of action jo iss film mein kut-kut se bhara hain (my film is full of such action).”

As an actor known for his music, and for mentoring talents like Himesh Reshammiya and Sajid-Wajid, does he not think now that the time has come for good music to return, and also solo composers? 

“Are you saying that the music of ‘Sikandar’ is not so good?” he counters. When I assure him it is a general thought, he replies, “The whole music scene only has changed and is confusing. I believe in old-school melody. Melody will always be melody! There was this kind of song in ‘Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan’, which also became a big hit, but people said it was too old-school. I personally love songs that one can hear while travelling, or to which one can dance with friends.”

Why has Salman been doing only action movies of late? “I would like to do other kinds, but the script should be right. Like if I do a comedy, it must be of the level of a ‘No Entry’ or ‘Andaz Apna Apna’.”

What is he doing next? “I am considering two films and will soon decide which to take up first.”