Indian filmmaker says actor’s apology, prompted by father Salim Khan, won him over
Indian filmmaker Subhash Ghai detailed the story of his fallout with actor Salman Khan in 2008, revealing how an apology eventually turned their strained relationship into a close friendship.
According to Gulf News, in a recent interview, Ghai discussed the physical altercation that broke out between him and Khan, which followed an intervention by the actor’s father, screenwriter Salim Khan.
Ghai shared that the incident occurred around the time he and Khan were working together on Yuvvraaj. The filmmaker noted that the disagreement erupted over a relatively minor issue.
“We were at a party. Salman was saying something wrong when I told him, ‘Don’t say that.’ He had some issues with me. He asked me, ‘Why did you do this or that?’ I said it is my decision as a director. He started abusing me, so I asked him not to do that. We had a spat there,” Ghai said, according to Gulf News.
He added that Khan’s father then stepped in to resolve the matter, calling Ghai the following morning. “He told me that Salman told all of these things to his mother. He said, ‘I have scolded him.’ He sent Salman to my house to apologise to me. And he came,” the filmmaker recalled.
He continued that Khan “politely apologised, after which I fell in love with him because he respected his father so much.” Following the apology, Ghai and Khan would often visit one another, going on to shoot Yuvvraaj together.
The film also starred Anil Kapoor and Katrina Kaif. However, it failed to make the desired impact at the box office. Speaking highly of Khan, Ghai suggested that the actor’s “larger-than-life” screen image may have overshadowed the character he played.
“Sometimes these characters don’t work because the star dominates the character. He plays himself rather than the character. Stars become a caricature of their own after a point,” he said.
Apart from Yuvvraaj, Ghai and Khan also came together for Hero in 2015, a remake of his 1983 original, which the filmmaker co-produced and Khan was involved with as a producer.
The altercation between the two, as recalled by the filmmaker, depicted a story of how a disagreement gave way to mutual respect, with their association later extending to Hero, showing that the relationship they rebuilt after the fallout continued beyond a single film.
