Kabir Bedi reveals how Salman Khan’s newfound success pushed him and Sunil Dutt to ‘background’

Actor Kabir Bedi has said that it was actor Salman Khan’s ‘newfound stardom’ in the early 1990s, which pushed him into the ‘background’. Kabir said that not only his but even Sunil Dutt’s work was impacted by it.

During the recent Times LitFest, Kabir was promoting his recently-released autobiography Stories I Must Tell when an audience member drew comparison between his life and Sunil Dutt’s, considering the way their sons had went through troubled times. However, Kabir decided to entertain everyone with a fun story about Sunil and himself, which also included Salman Khan.

Kabir shared that him and Sunil were asked to be part of a movie named Kurbaan. They were supposed to play the two leads in a village, who clash with each other over their ideologies. However, the producers also wanted a young actor in a smaller role and an actress to add some songs to the movie. Kabir suggested that writer Salim Khan’s son Salman can be considered for the role.

So the actor was brought on board but his newfound stardom flipped things entirely for Kabir and Sunil. “Bollywood films in those days particularly were shot in a sort of instalment plan. You know, they’d shoot a few days every month and it would keep going on. It used to take about two years to make a film and while the shooting for Kurbaan was going on, four of Salman’s films released and became superhits. Immediately, the scenes in our film were converted into a love story, and Dutt saab and I became the background music,” he wrote.

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However, there is no bad blood between Kabir and Salman for what happened. The two are still friends and Salman even helped launch Kabir’s book in July. During the live interaction, Salman spoke about the mistakes he’s made in life.

“That is the most difficult thing… to own the mistakes that one has done. Everyone denies that. I am one of those persons sitting right in front of you. I always said, ‘yeh maine nahi kiya (I haven’t done this)’. But if you have said that ‘yes, I’ve made this mistake and I’ve tried to rectify it this way’, that takes a lot of courage,” he said, praising Kabir for his book.