I must confess that I have had some very brief and strange close encounters with Salman Khan, aka Sallu, by those who love him, but who has strangely given me no reason to be happy about my encounters with him.

The times I have met him have been strange because every time we have met, there have been some awkward happenings which have left me baffled.

I remember the first time. There was this friend, J.K Bihari who was once an assistant of one of the most prolific filmmakers, K.C. Bokadia. Bihari had managed to get finances to make a film he had always wanted to make. All I remember was that Rekha was the leading lady and Bihari was very proud about giving a break to a young boy called Salman Khan who he (Bihari) told me was the eldest son of writer Salim Khan of the once-celebrity team of writers, Salim - Javed. I was interested. I wanted to see what the son of the handsome Salim Khan looked like. I was invited by Bihari to watch the shooting of his film while this new boy Salman was shooting with Rekha. Bihari introduced me to the young Khan who was lean, short, not so good-looking and had very long hair like it was the trend and style among boys of his age. Bihari introduced me to him and the young and brash Khan just shook my hand. I later came to know that he told Bihari not to invite 'this faltoo press people during the time he was shooting because they only specialized in writing nonsense and I don't like these people whom my father has advised me to keep away from'. I took his decision very seriously and told Bihari I would never visit his sets whenever this young Khan was around.

Encounter with a Young Khan: A Journalist's Tale

The second time I met him was when he had become a known name. He was shooting for a film called 'Sooryavanshi' at the Filmalaya Studios. I was still not interested in watching him shoot after how he had treated me the first time, but it was at the insistence of my friend Rakesh Kumar who once directed big films like 'Mr.Natwarlal', 'Yaaraana' and 'Do Aur Do Panch' with Amitabh Bachchan. I reached the set with my photographer, the late Mr. R.D. Rai. A typical fight sequence was being pictures and Rakesh Kumar was nowhere to be seen like most directors do when a fight sequence or a dance is being picturized. The action director was in charge of the scene. The young Khan's face which had now started growing a little more handsome was splattered with blood (tomato ketchup) and my photographer who had joined a film weekly after many years of working with a leading daily went into action and shot every scene he and his camera could see. The young Khan started hurling abuses and showing his fist to my photographer who kept on doing his job. The shot was over and the young Khan came rushing towards my photographer. He snatched his camera from his hands pulled out the reel he had shot asked the photographer to leave the set and told the producer he would not shoot as long as the photographer was around. I intervened and told the young Khan we were invited by the producer and doing our duty if not we were not at all interested in taking any of his pictures.

The young Khan again showed his color by muttering some insulting words under his breath. I decided not to take the matter lightly. I went to the office and reported the whole incident to my Editor. She was livid with anger and instantly decided to ban the young Khan from our paper. No photographs, not even stills from films, and no articles about the rising Khan would be published until he offered an apology. Those days there was a strong unity among photographers after knowing what had happened with my photographer and they all decided to ban him. They decided to stay away from all the functions where the young Khan was expected. Some of them went to the extent of asking producers to get him out of a frame if they wanted their picture to be published. This tug of war continued for eight long years till the Rajshris were making 'Hum Aapke Hain Koun'. They had a meeting with my Editor and the young Khan again said something which seemed like an apology and the matter was resolved all because of our affinity with the Rajshris.

Then came my other encounter. We were all a group of award-winners on a flight to Delhi when suddenly Rakeshnath (Rikku) called out my name, Ali Peter John loud and the Khan who was now a major star came running towards me and I stared straight into Khan's face without saying a word and he quietly left me in peace.

The next encounter we were planning our first major award ceremony and we needed stars to perform at the show. It was the first time we were having an awards function and we were having Akashdeep, a young event manager who was our advisor to manage the show. He believed that I had some very good contacts with all the stars and asked me why we should not take a chance with Salman Khan. I was reluctant but we needed someone like him. We met him at Film City and told him about our idea without wasting any time. And he laughed like a man gone half crazy and said 'I will perform and I promise you I will be the best item of your function. I will do anything only if you pay me fifteen lakhs fifteen lakhs in 1995 was a huge amount and we immediately left him and drove out of Film City. It was on our way down that I told Akashdeep to try Shaadaab Khan, the son of Amjad Khan to do the famous 'kitne aadmi the' scene from 'Sholay'. Akashdeep thought it was a good idea. On our way back I met Shaadaab and he was more than happy to do the whole sequence which was a major highlight of our entire program.

There were times when he felt he deserved the best actor award we gave away every year and when he did not find his name in the list of nominees, he lost no opportunity in running down our paper especially my Editor and me, who he said had something against him. The popular category was decided by a jury which was formed by the members from within the industry, but who could make this headstrong Khan understand?

His father, Salim Khan once called me home to ask me if this unnecessary battle could not stop I remember meeting Rajnikanth who said, 'Bachcha hai, Ali, maaf kardo aur jhagda bandh kar do'. I was willing to do anything because I and my paper were not interested in creating problems but in solving them. We waited for the Khan to give us some concrete reasons to show that he had improved, but nothing like that happened. The whole press was full of his wild stories about his romances and then the story about his running over and killing people and the killing of Cinkaras in the forest of Jodhpur and his being tried for what was considered a major crime. It was these happenings that were the spice of every magazine, weekly, and newspaper in the country. We just neglected him and he even took that as the Khan with a big heart.