When Salman Khan went bald ‘out of irritation’: ‘I had fever, the director was pestering me to attend the shoot’

When Salman Khan was offered Tere Naam, he was shooting for another film until one day, the actor decided to shave his head and decided that he was going to be a part of the Satish Kaushik film.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | July 14, 2023 04:36 PM IST

4 min read

Salman Khan in a still from Tere Naam.

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Salman Khan has been in the movies for over 30 years and in these three decades, he has always been celebrated as a star. Back in 2003, when Salman was just slipping out of his Prem persona, the actor played Radhe in Satish Kaushik’s Tere Naam. At the time, Tere Naam was seen as the story of a man who sacrifices everything in the name of love. Salman played the lead role in the film alongside Bhumika Chawla. Salman’s hairstyle in the film got very popular at the time but the second half of the film required Salman to shave off his hair.

During a 2021 appearance on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, Salman revealed that he impulsively shaved his head off after hearing the narration of Tere Naam while he was still making up his mind as to whether he should do the film. He shared on the show that at the time, he was actually shooting for another film and producer Sunil Manchanda told him that he would have to go bald for the second half of the film. Salman recalled, “Not many people know but there’s a very interesting story behind my look in Tere Naam. I was actually shooting for another film when the producer of Tere Naam and a very dear friend of mine – Sunil Manchanda came up to me and said that I’ll have to go bald to get into my character. I was not really sure because I was already doing a film at that time.”

Salman further recalled that he was down with fever one day when the director of the film that he was shooting insisted that he come to the shoot, but Salman got irritated and shaved off his head. “I still remember I was down with fever this one day, and the director of the other film was pestering me to attend the shoot. I impulsively went to the washroom and shaved my hair out of irritation,” he shared.

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After this, Salman called Sunil and became a part of Tere Naam. “The next day, I called up Sunil ji and said that I had shaved my hair and am willing to sign up for Tere Naam. Everyone was actually against me doing this film, but for some reason, I wanted to do it, and irrespective of everyone’s disagreement I went on to take up the role of Radhe Mohan,” he said.

Tere Naam was directed by Satish Kaushik, who passed away earlier this year. In an earlier interview with indianexpress.com, Kaushik had acknowledged that the film had a few problematic elements. “The guy is trying to tell the girl that he loves her, yet he is not ready to take no from her. That’s definitely not good. But if you notice, that’s the culture in small cities even today, where a guy ends up running after a girl… As a filmmaker, your responsibility, whether you want to show such a love story or not, is a different issue all together. One would definitely want to avoid that (today). You can’t fall in love with someone who’s said no to you. But that’s what passion was all about then, where you won’t take no from a person.”

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