Salman skips Lucknow shoot for Dabangg 2 to avoid "danga phasaad"

For his brother Arbaaz’s Dabangg 2 Salman Khan has decided not to shoot in Lucknow and Kanpur for security reasons. Not his own security, but that of his unit and the local people. We’ve come to know from the highly-placed sources in the Uttar Pradesh administration that the Khans were “strongly advised” against bringing Salman to shoot on location in Lucknow and Kanpur. Says our source from Lucknow, “Salmanbhai never joined us here in Lucknow. He is not expected to join us. Kuch danga-phasaad (riots) ka lafda hai. Arbaazbhai decided to shoot in UP with the rest of the cast. Salmanbhai won’t join us either here in Lucknow or in Kanpur when we shoot there in a couple of days. Please don’t mention the date when we’re shooting in Kanpur. We’ve been asked to keep mum over schedules because crowds gather days in advance wherever in UP they hear we will shoot.” The fact that Salman is not joining the Dabangg 2 unit in Lucknow has not been divulged to the locals in fear that their anticipation of seeing their favourite Khan in person might turn into a bitter and violent rage of disappointment at his absence. When contacted, Arbaaz who was deeply immersed in the shooting revealed, “It’s been chaotic here. We didn’t bring Salman. He will now join us directly at Satara for the shooting of the climax. But the people here gathered in hordes for the shooting in the outdoors probably in the hope that Salman would turn up. And when he didn’t, they got restless.” Arbaaz had to shoot in some of the outdoors of Lucknow Guerrilla style with hidden cameras. “I don’t know how the locals got to know. But they were there before us in several locations hoping to see Salman. We had to shoot secretly and flee from some of the outdoors before the Salman-crazy crowds jumped on us.” Ironically Salman’s absence in Lucknow generated as much frenzy as his presence would have. Says Arbaaz, “I believe there was trouble in Kanpur a few days ago when we were not even scheduled to shoot there. What do we do! We just want to slip in to Kanpur secretly and quickly do the shooting.” Significantly UP and Bihar are out of bounds for Salman Khan for the same reason. The local administration can’t guarantee the safety of the superstar or his fans.