Bollywood star Salman Khan doesn’t think before he shoots — from his mouth or his, well, his gun.
Bollywood star Salman Khan doesn’t think before he shoots — from his mouth or his, well, his gun.
Recounting the rigorous training he had to undergo for his forthcoming wrestling film, Sultan, he likened it to feeling like “a raped woman” while talking to a group of journalists.
“You look like a fraud if you haven’t trained properly. You need to put in those many hours as any wrestler does and that’s what we have done. Now when you are shooting, you are continuously wrestling for six hours I’d have to lift the same 120-kilo guy 10 times from 10 different angles. And likewise, get thrown that many times on the ground... When I used to walk out of the ring, after the shoot, I used to feel like a raped woman. I couldn’t walk straight...” he said.
As journalists start laughing, he, perhaps realising his mistake said, “I don’t think I should have ” and tried to explain that he found it hard to walk.
But the recording of the interview, with the journalists laughing at the comment, went viral on Tuesday morning, triggering an outrage on social media and irking the National Commission for Women (NCW). Taking suo moto notice of his comments, the NCW said it had written to Mr Khan demanding an apology and had sought an explanation. The NCW said summons would be issued if he did not say sorry. Outraged Twitter users criticised him, and the hashtag #InsensitiveSalman was trending. Salman Khan supporters responded with a counter campaign #SalmanMisquoted.
In the same interview, Mr Khan said he was able to quit every “vice” — like cigarettes, alcohol and coffee — but not women.
Commenting on the controversy on Twitter, his father Salim Khan wrote, “Undoubtedly what Salman said is wrong — the simile, example and the context. The intention was not wrong. Nevertheless, I apologise on behalf of his family his fans & his friends. Forgiveness is to pardon the unpardonable or it is no virtue at all. To err is human to forgive divine. Today on International Yoga Day let’s not run our shops on this mistake.”
