Chapter-4

CHAPTER 4 : THE MAN, AND HIS WOMEN

Rarely has an actor in the history of Indian cinema faced so many tumultuous relationships mired with endless controversies. Salman khan is not branded as a Casanova for nothing. Time and again he has turned out to be the passionate lover and the doomed destroyer at the same moment. People say that if not for his bouts of extreme possessiveness and his high impulsiveness, Salman has that ability in himself to become a wonderful and a responsible lover. But records have it that the man has incessantly come under public ire due to his misdemeanors with his lady loves. Salman has had many broken affairs and detractors say that he is not capable of having a stable relationship and giving long lasting bliss to the lady of his choice because he is constitutionally different, observes Biswadeep in his book. The actor’s first major relationship was with Shaheen Jaffrey, when he was 19 years of age. Both of them were so deeply in love that even their family accepted their proposal to marry each other. So what made the relationship sour? As happens in Bollywood masala flicks, there entered a damsel in our knight’s life- Sangeeta Bijlani – in distress due to her recent breakup with his boyfriend. And no prizes for guessing that our valiant hero took charge. What started off as a friendship turned into a strong romance and the fact that our lady was older than Salman did not matter to them. Salman was to claim later that their relationship started after he and Shaheen had broken up, but the truth remains that he was caught between two fires and did not know how to deal with the dilemma, writes Biswadeep. Shaheen suucumbed to the betrayal and that was the beginning of the end of their beautiful relationship. Soon the Salman- Sangeeta affair cruised along and they became a hit pair in the town, with the families agreeing for marriage yet again. But alas, history repeated itself. The dreamboat in which the two had ventured capsized leaving a shattered Sangeeta and a Salman unavailable for comment. The woman who once went hoarse trying to defend Salman against his alleged relationship with actress Zeba bakhtiar, could not hold back her pain after the split. “Yes its true I have split with Salman…But our decision to part was a mutual one…My only regret about breaking off with him is that I have had to distance myself from his family…”. But wait a minute. Like a Hindi potboiler, the duo patched up again. And broke up again…After withstanding so many fluctuations in the relationship, Sangeeta finally gave it away. “I want Salman to know that this break is the final one. I have been fooled too often.” In what would seem unbelievable in its repetition, the reason for their final break up was yet another girl in the man’s life. Enter Somy Ali. Apparently, Salman lost his heart to the suffering, stumbling girl next door who was ill treated by her family. He helped her to bag leading roles in movies like Bulund. Falling into Salman’s charms, Somy left her father and started staying with Salman in her newly bought flat. She tolerated Salman’s extremely suspicious nature with a smiling face and a time came when she proposed the legalization of their relationship. But Salman lived up to his non committal image and refused any plans of marrying her right then. He felt that Somy was childish and immature and she won’t be able to take up the responsibility. What spelled disaster for the remaining embers of the relationship was the appearance of the world’s most beautiful women in 1994- Miss Universe Aishwarya rai in Khan’s life. When Somy heard of this, heartbroken, she went away to United States to start a life afresh.

And then came Aish…

Before both of them met, they had their share of affairs with other people in their lives. So while Salman romanced Shaheen, Somy and Sangeeta off screen, Aishwarya was linked to Rajeev Mulchandani and Sabeer Bhatia. Aishwarya made her debut in Hindi films in the year 1999, but wasn’t able to get a success. That time Salman offered his help for her to choose the right kind of roles so that she could be able to showcase her talent. And then came the blockbuster Hum Dil de chuke sanam. Till now, people largely believe that it was during the shooting of this Sanjay Leela Bhansali film that the couple got drawn towards each other. It is said that Aishwarya used to drop by Salman’s home regularly in the pretext of rehearsing her lines for the film, even when he was living in with Somy. Soon our man got besotted with the diva and fell head over heels in love with her. Meanwhile Ash started doing what Sangeeta had once done. She started visiting Salman’s house and became a favourite with the family who was contended with Salman’s happiness. Aishwarya belongs to a close knit Bunt family and her family had some reservations against her decision to marry Salman who belonged to a different religion. As we have seen with other ladies in his life, Aishwarya too rebelled against her family and decided to live all by herself in a new flat in Mumbai. A great dent in the relationship formed when Salman came to Aishwarya’s flat one midnight, dead drunk. According to reports by neighbours, he started banging on her door because he wanted to get inside. On December 24, 2002, cities.expressindia.com reported that “A drunk Salman reached Aishwarya’s Lokhandwala house past midnight, banged on the door and reportedly broke window panes.” This incident got hugely publicized in the media and a lot of tales started circulating. Naturally, Aishwarya’s parents got very concerned and disapproved salman’s presence in their daughter’s life. In an interview to Bombay times quoted on salmanonline.net, Salman was at the epitome of penitence. He said, “Her parents are great people. They are a little conservative. They have heard about my earlier girlfriends and they don’t approve of Salman in their daughter’s life. It’s not their fault, but mine. I did misbehave with them. Her father’s grouse against me is totally justified, but I have nothing against him.” In another incident, when there was an Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate Investigation in Salman’s house, it was said that the officials had bumped into documents that belonged to his ex-flame Somy. When Salman admitted to Aishwarya that he was still in touch with Somy, the relationship began to develop serious cracks. Soon Salman began to feel the pinch because Aishwarya was not committing herself the way he wanted her to. Perhaps he also felt that she had reached such a stage in her career that she needed her no longer. Salman’s pals backed him and during this period a friend of his said that how after the midnight incident, Aishwarya took up only her cause but never spoke on behalf of both of them, knowing fully well that Salman does not speak too often in front of the media. “Salman was very hurt, though he never made an issue of it.” Said the friend. Biswadeep goes on to add further that Salman was always in the news for the wrong reason which involved his conflict with Aishwarya. He created a scene on the sets of Rohan Sippy’s Kuch na Kaho, when he drove inside the sets, banged Ash’s car and also the van belonging to her co-star Abhishek bachhan. The condition worsened when the hot-headed and highly possessive actor went to the sets of Shah Rukh Khan’s home production, Chalte Chalte in Malshet. At that time, Aishwarya was a part of the movie. He argued with Shah Rukh, held him by the collar and accused him of having an affair with Ash. SRK promptly replaced the actress with Rani Mukherjee. SRK explained his stance to Filmfare later saying that he has no personal enimity against Ash but for professional reasons, he had to take the decision. Soon, as expected, the relationship turned rancid and even though Salman did not confirm anything from his position, Aishwarya made it very clear that maintaining the relationship would be nothing less than self strangulation. Ash turned vocal about her feelings to the Bombay Times as written in Biswadeep’s book. “After we broke up, he (Salman) would call me and talk rubbish; he also suspected me of having affairs with my co-stars. There were times when Salman got physical with me, luckily without leaving any mark.” Just after the press conference held by Vivek (as discussed earlier), Aishwarya rai issued a formal statement affirming that she is not going to work with Salman khan anymore. This was the final straw. On april 6, 2003 Aishwarya made clear that for the sake of her sanity, dignity and her family’s self esteem, she will not work with the actor anymore. “Enough!...the Salman chapter was a nightmare in my life and I am thankful to God that it is over.” She said that she had been “enduring his alcoholism” and was at the receiving end of his abuses (verbal, physical and emotional). She claimed that she had ended her relationship with Khan two years ago . Biswadeep observes that amongst all this hullabaloo Salman remained absolutely silent about the issue. He has been demonstrative in his private life, but never turned his difficulties into fodder for public consumption. Salman and Aishwarya’s love story has been the most talked about relationship in Bollywood in the recent times. According to Biswadeep, every aspect of it got written about when it lasted and , long after the relationship is over and the protagonists have moved on with their respective lives, their fans continue to think and talk about it as if the couple fell in love only yesterday. He is presently dating actress Katrina kaif, who made it big in Bollywood with a little bit of a support from Salman. The media is tracking their relationship with utmost curiosity and alertness. There have been a handful of reports in the media linking the couple with other men and women, of how Salman again resorted to hitting the girl and other sizzlers, but they have not been able to create a breach in their bonding. But knowing the man’s history, No one can be so sure.