Stardom makes no difference to me, says Salman Khan

Season 12 of the reality show Bigg Boss recently kicked off in great style at Goa’s Coco Beach. The celebration had superstar Salman Khan, who’s coming back to host the show for the ninth time, making a grand entrance by boat before sitting down to answer some of the media’s questions.

Salman said that being on the show was a win-win situation for all contestants because whether they managed to win or not, they ended up gaining popularity and getting more work after leaving the house. “For those who get evicted in the first week itself, it’s probably too early. In the first week, no one knows what’s happening in the house or how to survive on the show. But by the second week, the contestants know everything,” Salman said, adding, “People love to get to know more about the contestants.”

Reminiscing on previous visits to the scenic beach-state, the actor said, “Way back during my initial says in the film industry, I remember shooting commercials for Gravira Shirtings and Suitings here in Goa.”

Nearly 30 years later, he’s undoubtedly one of the industry’s biggest stars, but apparently, that doesn’t matter to him. “It feels like all of this happened just yesterday, but it makes no difference to me,” he said.

Talking about the effort put into his work, the actor added, “We have to dance, perform action sequences, travel from city to city and country to country, and constantly keep shooting. We also have to stay fit. For all those who are in this industry, the only mantra to success is hard work. We all follow it — be it actors or technicians.”

The Khandaan is known for being a close-knit unit and Salman is especially protective of them. When we asked him if he considered himself an “obedient son”, he laughed and responded, “You need to ask my mom and dad that. Though I would say yes, they may have different opinions.”

Recently, a video came out of the actor holding his mother’s hand while crossing a road in Malta, where he’s shooting for Bharat. The image of the hunky hero taking care of his mother sure made for a cute picture. “If you guys think that I was guiding my mother across the road, then you’re sadly mistaken. It’s my mom that still takes care of all of us,” he said.

He also told us that he liked having his mother accompany him on foreign trips. “Mom has accompanied me to foreign locations many times. It’s a little easier for us to roam around freely, and we enjoy that a lot. Dad does not like travelling so much. But he’s just a phone call away, so we can talk on a daily basis,” he said.

Salman also whined about how it had been ages since he’d seen the lobby of a five-star hotel. “Being a celebrity, I can never enter or exit directly from the lobby. To avoid a commotion, I have to enter through the kitchen and use the service elevator,” he said.