ONE MAN ARMY

SALMAN KHAN HAS A DECEPTIVE NONCHALANCE ABOUT HIM. He appears misleadingly casual about his films and his celebrity status. There’s no attempt to intellectualise his work or an effort to impress. But those close to him know how committed he's as an artiste. He plays a man from 27 to 72 in Ali Abbas Zafar’s

Bharat. For that he’s revisited changing landscapes of time and emotions, just as he switched from silhouette to silhouette to be in sync with the character’s altering physicality. It could also mark his gentle initiation into doing mature roles. He’s candid about consciously having to keep the ‘old man’ at bay. He’s forthcoming about having to jostle with aches and pains even as he packs a punch on the screen. The heartwarming honesty perhaps comes from the fact that the megastar has not lost touch with the person he is. Perhaps, his late-night rendezvous with painting and writing and perhaps the shadows that have stalked the spotlight have helped him keep the conversation going with himself… Excerpts…

“STARDOM WILL FADE EVENTUALLY. IT’S A HUGE TASK TO KEEP IT GOING FOR SUCHWE’RE THE ONLY ONES WHO’VE BEEN ABLE TO PULL IT OFF FOR SUCH A LONG TIME…THEN LIKE IN THE CASE OF ALL SUPERSTARS,THE BOX-OFFICE COLLECTION WILL COME DOWN TO 10 PER CENT”