Salman Khan, ‘Dabangg’ & Destiny

Revealing how the hottest project this year so far came to become the star’s baby, brother Sohail Khan reveals, “Abhinav Kashyap came to narrate the script to Arbaaz Khan as he wanted him to play a role in his maiden film as writer and director. Arbaaz got excited when he heard the script as he saw a lot of potential in the script. He sounded me about the script and wanted me to hear it.”

Sohail’s reaction to the subject was the same as that of Arbaaz. It may be mentioned here that before Abhinav decided to put the project together with Arbaaz and another small actors in the two lead roles, he had faced rejection from many producers and corporate houses as they had not found the story engaging enough.

Anyway, Arbaaz’s business mind was ticking. He wanted to produce the film. That is when Sohail and Arbaaz decided to narrate the script to eldest brother, Salman, and firstly, get his reaction to whether Arbaaz should turn producer with the film, and secondly, whether he would play the main lead in the film. Salman saw tremendous potential in the film’s story when he heard it, recalls an excited Sohail. “Bhai (Salman) told the debut-making writer-director that what he had written made the film look like an art film, but that he saw a lot of commercial potential in it. He next told Abhinav to concentrate on the film’s making, ambience etc. but to allow him (Salman) make it more commercial.” Obviously, Abhinav was getting what he hadn’t imagined in his wildest of dreams. Salman came on board as the hero and unofficial producer. Next, the film with a planned budget of Rs. 7 crore was visualised on a far bigger canvas and re-budgeted at Rs. 30 crore. Commercial songs were added in the script, which, incidentally, have caught the entire nation’s fancy since the last more than a month.

The rest, as they probably might say after the film’s release on 10th September, is history…

– By Koimoi.com Team