Salim Khan didn’t like Salman Khan’s performance in Baghban: ‘Not a nice man, you are looking blind’

Salman Khan played a Prem-like character in Baghban but as per his father Salim Khan, his niceness did not come across as intended.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | June 1, 2023 08:45 PM IST

3 min read

Salman Khan in a still from Baghban.

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Salman Khan was associated with his screen name ‘Prem’ for a large part of the 1990s with films because of films like Maine Pyar Kiya and Hum Aapke Hain Koun. His on-screen persona of being the respectful and kind hero was often seen in many movies of that era but as the 2000s rolled in, Salman started diversifying in terms of his movie choices so when he got back to playing a Prem-like character in Baghban, his father Salim Khan believed that it didn’t work.

Salman’s Prem was created by Sooraj Barjatya but when Salman attempted to bring in that innocence in Ravi Chopra’s 2003 film Baghban, Salim commented that instead of looking like a “nice man”, he was “looking like a blind man.” In an old chat with Sooraj Barjatya, Salman shared, “I had a problem in Baghban as well where my father said, ‘Why are you looking blind?’ I asked ‘Blind?'”

Salman believed that the niceness and humility that he was trying to portray on screen did not look genuine and even though the character was appreciated by the audience, he knew he had “failed miserably.” Speaking about Salim’s comments, Salman said that as per his father, he was “not looking like a nice man” but instead, he looked “artificial.”

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“I played that very wrong. It was appreciated and everything but I understood as an actor that I’ve failed miserably in that and my father caught it,” he shared. In Baghban, Salman played Alok, the adopted son of Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini’s characters. The film follows the couple as their own children ignore them but their adopted son takes special care of his elderly parents.

Director Ravi Chopra, in a 2003 interview with Rediff said that he chose Salman because he looked “decent.” “In Baghban, Salman plays an orphan who is brought up by Amitji. I needed someone who looked very decent because he’s the good guy in the film. His character is indebted to the man who has raised him. Salman has done a great job,” he said.

The film, which also starred Paresh Rawal, Lillete Dubey, Samir Soni, Divya Dutta, Aman Varma, Mahima Choudhury, was a big hit at the box office at the time.

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