Don’t know who doctored tape but timing foolproof: father

As I told Salman when this so-called story broke, they are clever people and we’re pitted against them. The timing was just perfect: a Delhi-based newspaper’s launch in Mumbai. The best way to get noticed was to target Bollywood, and who better than Salman Khan? He’s the media’s favourite whipping boy. (When contacted, the resident editor of The Hindustan Times, the newspaper which carried the transcripts, refused to comment.)

I don’t know why Salman gets this special attention. Iske haath se kuch galtiyan hoti rehti hain. The general perception is Aamir and Shah Rukh mauke nahin dete hain magar Salman toh kuch na kuch karta rehta hai.

Everything he does is made out to be bad. People who don’t know him, comment on him. Kabhi khabar aati hai ki Salman has AIDS or that he has underworld connections. An accident becomes national news. Nobody even bothers to find out whether he was driving the car.

Salman is a regular, decent boy who cares for his family. We live in the same house and there are days when I see him going through turmoil. I can’t go and tell him how to conduct his life. He’s going to turn 40. I can’t claim to be more intelligent or knowledgeable than my sons. The only thing I have more than them is experience. And I share that with them all the time.

We’re a spiritual family. My children believe in two things — God and poetic justice. You’ll never see Salman declaring what he’s thinking or feeling from rooftops. He knows that there is someone up there who is looking after him.

I think some people don’t like other people’s independence. Salman has never asked anything of anyone and neither have I. Maybe that’s the reason the family is always a target. It’s really strange. Have you ever heard of an instance jahan pe bete pe ilzaam hain jaanwar maarne ka aur baap pe ilzaam hain jaanwar palne ka? If you read my charge sheet, you’d think Veerappan was a kid in front of me!

My friends in the industry ask me why I’m not writing anything. You need isolation and concentration to write. Every second day, I have to go to the court for Salman’s cases. It’s almost a fulltime job. Bachchon ko kuch hota hai toh takleef maa baap ko hoti hai. You won’t understand this right now, but every parent will.

(As told to Harneet Singh)