Choreographer Salman Yusuff Khan says Bengaluru immigration officer harassed him for not knowing Kannada: ‘If you can’t speak Kannada, I can…’

The choreographer told the immigration officer that he hasn’t spent a lot of time in the city, because he was raised in Saudi Arabia. He learnt some Kannada because of his friends in Bengaluru. After hearing this, Salman claimed that the officer told him, “If u can’t speak Kannada, I can suspect you…”

 

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Salman continued, “I told him that I know my nation’s official language Hindi why should I know Kannada ..I asked him again suspect me for what ..?and he says. I can just suspect you for anything …I told him … TRY ME. And got a little louder and repeated TRY ME .. thrice …To which he kept quiet ..I told him that if uneducated people like you continue to live in this country this country will never grow …To which he just kept his head down and murmuring …”

Salman tried to report the matter to the airport authorities, but he claimed that he got no help. The dancer-choreographer concluded his post with the note, “Ps: I am a proud Bangalorean but what I’ve faced today is unacceptable … you should always encourage people to learn any local language not demean them for not knowing it .. and pulling your parents name into it.

Recently, a Bengaluru auto driver and a woman also got into a verbal spat over her not knowing Kannada. The video of their scuffle has been going viral on the internet.

Salman Yusuff Khan rose to fame after winning the first season of the dance reality show, Dance India Dance in 2009. He made his Bollywood debut with Remo D’Souza’s dance drama ABCD: Any Body Can Dance in 2013. He then starred in a few films, the last one being the 2020 release Street Dancer 3D, co-starring Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor.