Saajan director Lawrence D’Souza recalled Salman Khan’s early days as an actor in a recent interview.
With a massive fan-base and several hits to his name, Salman Khan is one of the biggest superstars and highest-paid actors when we talk about Hindi film industry. Director Lawrence D’Souza, in one of his latest interviews, walked down the memory lane and recalled Salman’s early days in the industry.
While speaking to Friday Talkies, Lawrence opened up on the time when director and producer , S Ramanathan signed Salman for Rs 5000 after watching his performance in Maine Pyar Kiya at the film’s trial show. However, the film that the ‘Andaz Apna Apna’ actor was signed for never got made.
Lawrence said, “We went for the trial of Maine Pyar Kiya at Rajshri; me, S Ramanathan and Prayagraj, they had kept a special trial (screening) for the three of us. When I watched the film, initially I didn’t enjoy it much, but as the film went on, I started liking him in the movie. After watching the film, S Ramanathan, with whom I was doing a film called Pratiksha, I was the director an cameraman, said, ‘Lawrence, let’s sign Salman, usko bula lo (call him). So I called Salman at his office near Raj Babbar’s office in Juhu. We paid Salman a signing amount of Rs 5,000. S Ramanathan should have started the film, but went quiet after paying him.”
After this, Salman delivered a bigger hit and Ramanathan who previously missed out on an opportunity to direct him, paid him Rs 5 lakh for another project. Unfortunately, that film too failed to take off.
Lawrence recalled, “Salman then said, “What kind of a person is he? He pays me money and then he does nothing.”
Later, while speaking about his hit film, Saajan, Lawrence revealed that while he received Rs 8 lakh for directing the film, Salman Khan and Madhuri Dixit were paid Rs 11 lakh each and Sanjay Dutt was paid Rs 12 lakh. Yes, you heard that right! The ‘Rocky’ actor’s remuneration was higher than his other two co-stars.
In the same interview, the filmmaker also shared how Salman once schooled him for making better films.
“I used to do films to help producer friends, some of them were poor, so I wanted to help them and made films with some new actors as well. But Salman once told me, ‘You don’t do all this now. You have made Saajan, now you have to do even better than that.’ I am an emotional person. I wanted to help people, and that’s why I didn’t earn much in this industry.”
Saajan was one of the highest grossing films of 1991 and is still cherished by fans for its blockbuster songs.
