Salman Khan is ‘dildaar’, invited entire Dus Ka Dum crew to his home for dinner when shoot ended late at night: Siddhartha Basu

While speaking to Lallantop, the producer spoke about working with Salman and shared that he has a very different connect with audiences. And even when he was doing a show like this for the first time, he nailed it with his genuineness. “He is not comfortable with teleprompter and doesn’t like memorising. It’s his connect that did the magic as be it a sweeper, auto driver, pan wala, housewife or the biggest celeb, he has a connect with everyone. The genuineness just comes ahead,” Basu shared.

He also added how the show helped Salman Khan change his image from the bad boy, he was earlier known as. Recalling his interactions with him, Basu said that the Bollywood star is quite a ‘dildaar’ and really takes care of everyone around him.

“We were doing a mock at his brother’s office with our unit. He asked us to play the game for him and liked it. As the crew started to leave late at night, he asked about what they will eat. He then invited everyone home from the camera assistant to the sound assistant. He lives in a small flat and yet got everyone home and fed them well,” Siddhartha Basu shared.

The producer and quiz master added that television too accepted Salman wholeheartedly, and he is one of the few to have such a long career on the medium. Referring to Bigg Boss, he said that while he doesn’t watch it as it’s not his kind of show, he knows Salman is very popular on it, and keeps coming back every year.

When Dus Ka Dum returned to Sony TV in 2018, Salman Khan had spoken about how the show gave him a new identity. Confessing that he was a bundle of nerves when the show launched, the Tiger 3 actor recalled a sweet incident that made him realise that he was finally accepted as himself. “I was shooting for Wanted in Panvel and as usual I was out for a run. That farmhouse has been there from the time Maine Pyar Kiya released but suddenly I had an old lady come up to me and say, ‘Dus Ka Dum ho na?’ And during that eight kilometres of run, the entire town was clicking pictures saying ‘Dus Ka Dum’. I really felt great that day and I also realised that people have forgotten my characters Prem, Raja, Arjun, Samir and now know me by my real name.”

He also shared how it was his father Salim Khan, who had given him the confidence to do the show. “I was scared and so I asked my father (Salim Khan) whether I should do it because there will be the common man. I was scared of being me and who I am. He told me, ‘who do you want to be then? If people accept you, it’s good, if not, you will need to change yourself.’ That’s when I decided to do this show,” Salman said then.