Jai Ho: The Salman Khan Interview

With 5000 screens across India set to beam Jai Ho, Salman Khan is set for his biggest release yet after Dabangg. On the eve of his movie’s release, we listened in as the much loved superstar spoke to us about what being common means to him and why he still prefers making mass masala entertainers. A political party has planned protests against Jai Ho because you lent your support to Modi. What do you have to say? I make movies to entertain. Please go and watch it. If there are protests happening, then our police will take care of it. Your movie talks about Aam Aadmi. What does being common mean to you? For me it is all about being uncommon. Everyone has the right to be uncommon. We should have the right sensibilities of identifying the right person. Is this person good for us or is he bad for us? Is this the right thing for me to do? That character of making this decision is lacking in us today. I will give you an example. If you don’t like a particular script and don’t plan to do it, the thinking will not stop at that. Even though you have decided not to do it, you will think what if the picture becomes a hit? The simple logic is to do something which you like. If you like it, you do it and if you don’t, don’t do it. If someone who does it becomes a hit, then it is his destiny. So we should never do things for the wrong reason. For me being common is not about changing something. It’s about taking a stand. I want to take a stand on anything that I feel is wrong. We blame the system for all the lack of progress. What do you have to say? (Looks irritated)You blame the bloody system for everything. This is the same system that is prevalent in Britain. There are many countries which are not even as big as our states. Look at their roads and other infrastructure. Some countries are only as big as Bandra but they are far ahead. We don’t have a civic sense. I hope it changes now. If it doesn’t change now then the common man will not have faith in anybody ever again. Your movie is coming at a time when Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party are trending. Do you support him? I won’t support anybody until I see some concrete results of the promised things. Okay. Moving on to movies, are you concerned about the new 100-crore club? See what I am concerned about is that the producer ultimately shouldn’t lose any money and that is us. The distributors and exhibitors shouldn’t lose any money. As long as my films work and make some profit, I would be happy. I don’t want to be a part of this number game. I am not interested in breaking any records. I want to make a film that I loved watching as a child. Now you call them bakwaas cinema or Salman Khan’s larger-than-life movie, I am not concerned. Because that is the kind of cinema I would like to do. So what exactly is Salman’s kind of cinema? As a child I have gone to theaters to watch movies, stood on chairs and whistled after watching my heroes on screen. And today I am in a position to make such movies. I want to give back my fans that kind of movies. The movies in which you see the hero is fallen down and people should say Utth Yaar Utth. That scream should come from them. And when the hero stands on his legs and comes out triumphant, you come out of theaters feeling that you want to be that hero. I want to give people that feeling because I still go through that experience. Whenever I see a good romantic film or action film, I feel I want to be that boyfriend or that war hero when I come out of theater. But are you genuinely unaffected by the number game? I actually mean it when I say I don’t want to be a part of this number game. I just don’t want my films to flop. If my film flops it only means my thinking is going wrong. History is full of examples of how a film that was the most favourite of an actor didn’t work at the box office. If something like that happens, then you start thinking what will actually work. When you get that feeling, you are completely shaken up as an actor. So far it has not happened with me. But there will come a time when actors will start thinking, start preaching, start doing things that is not convincing. I hope it doesn’t happen with Jai Ho. Finally tells us what can the audience expect from Jai Ho? It’s a film that has a lot of comedy, action and romance. So in short, it has everything that a family will love watching.