Nayandeep Rakshit (DNA; November 11, 2017)

Multi-starrers in Bollywood have been a rage right from the ’60s. Whether it’s Waqt, Deewar, Sholay, Amar Akbar Anthony, or Chandni, these movies were loved by the audiences. The trend continued in the ’90s, too, when every year there would be a handful of films starring two of the reigning superstars of that era sharing screen space. Darr, Karan Arjun, Jeet, Ishq, Chal Mere Bhai were among those that worked their magic at the box office. Over the last few years, however, such projects have lessened. Speaking about why that has happened, Salman Khan says, “The prices (that heroes demand) have gone high and we don’t have such budgets. Hence, the recovery will be impossible. For a two-hero film, everyone has to cut their prices drastically. If the dates permit, then fine, but otherwise, asking actors to cut down their fee is also not right. Also, for any big film, you will need 150 days to shoot. Even something on the scale of a Karan Arjun would need that much time. But if the film is divided, into 30-35 days shoots, you can still think of doing something like that. For example, we can make an Andaz Apna Apna now. It may not be possible with Aamir, Shah Rukh or me, but the younger generation can still do it.”

Be secure
The Gen-Y brigade seems to be a little concerned about issues like bigger roles and prominence. Rohit Shetty had announced that he had to scrap his remake of Ram Lakhan because no two actors were happy with their screen time. Yes, there’s Gunday starring Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh, or Brothers with Akshay Kumar and Sidharth Malhotra, Dishoom starring Varun Dhawan and John Abraham, and Padmavati with Ranveer and Shahid Kapoor, but these examples are few. Salman says, “There can’t be insecurities creeping in. If you’re confident about yourself and your position, you shouldn’t feel like that. We also were young stars when we did films together. We were friends and all this never took over our friendship. The young generation needs to realise this.” He cites his own example and says, “There was a time when my career had dipped. I was not being cast for solo hero films, I piggybacked — I jumped on to Sunny (Deol) and Sanju’s (Sanjay Dutt’s) backs. I did a film with Rahul Roy and lots of other people, too.”

He reasons, “The most sensible thing to do is to realise that meri picture chal nahi rahi hai, so I should rather do a two-hero film and make it work. Once the film works, I’ll start getting back films the way I used to, when my career was shining. That is exactly what I did and the younger generation doesn’t understand that.” Salman’s advice for the next breed of actors comes with a logical explanation of statistics. “They are doing well for themselves, two guys or three guys get together for a film, and if the casting is superb, then instead of them individually doing Rs 60-70-100 crore each, their film together will straightaway touch the Rs 150-200 crore mark.” Point noted.

But will he too say yes to a film, that stars any of his other contemporary stars? Salman nods with a smile, “I would love to work with everyone I’ve worked with again. Whether it’s Sunny, Sanju, Ajay, Akki, Shah Rukh or Aamir I would definitely do a film with them. But my character and their characters should be superb. The point is people are not writing like before anymore. Previously, the writing would give way to all of us saying yes to a film, without thinking that we won’t have anything to do in a film. The scripts were like that. Today, the seniors are very big stars and they are heroes, so if there’s nothing for them to do, to take the film to them is not right again.”