Ankur Pathak (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 18, 2014)

Shah Rukh Khan may well have laid claim to the adage 'Bollywood ka Badhsah' or 'King Khan' all these years, but now it seems Salman Khan is intent on taking away at least one of the tags.

Mirror was the first to report that Salman will be seen in a double role in Sooraj Barjatya's next, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. Now, we can report that one of his two roles is that of a king with a heart of gold who answers to the call of Ratan and rules over a fantasy kingdom. He has an identical twin, Prem, who's a "common man" and miles removed from his world.

A source close to the production revealed, "Sooraj has written the character of Ratan with Salman in mind. He's the ideal raja who is loved and worshipped by his subjects. Sonam Kapoor plays the role of a princess."

The unit is currently shooting at ND Studio in Karjat where an elaborate set has been erected. "Salman has given a lot of inputs for both the characters, Prem and Ratan, which are positive roles," adds the source.

However, even though in Sooraj's world everyone is happy and good, in this film there's a character with strong negative shades, which will be enacted by Neil Nitin Mukesh."Neil is playing a vengeful prince who is King Salman's step-brother," informs the source.

The film also features Armaan Kohli, Swara Bhaskar and Deepak Dobriyal in pivotal roles. More about them later.

Subhash K Jha (DNA; March 26, 2014)

Salman Khan has played a double role only once in his 25-year-old career. It was 17 years ago in Judwaa. Now he is all set to star in two back-to-back double roles at around the same time.

The actor, who had made a commitment to himself that he would only do another double role after Judwaa when the film’s sequel will be made, now faces the dilemma of being in two back-to-back releases — Anees Bazmee’s No Entry Mein Entry and Sooraj Barjatya’s Prem Ratan Dhan Payo.

According to a source, “Salman doesn’t want to be seen in every frame of the films that he stars in. And if he does two back-to-back double roles he feels the audience will be subjected to an excess of his screen presence.” Not just that, he even has a third film for release in 2015 — Kabir Khan’s untitled one.

Bazmee has now been asked to ensure that Salman’s presence in his film is not a repeat performance of Barjatya’s film. Says the director, “We are aware that Salman is playing a double role in both films. Sooraj is a very different filmmaker from me. What he would be doing in his film would be very different from us. However, we are taking precautions to avoid any similarity. Two double roles needn’t be similar. Rajesh Khanna’s double role in Sachcha Jhootha was very different from his double role in Aradhana, though both the films came in the same year.”