In this throwback interview that happened after the release of Tere Naam in 2003, Salman Khan speaks on playing Radhe, the hostility the film faced from media, and whether it was inspired by his relationship with Aishwarya Rai. Directed by Satish Kaushik, Tere Naam also starred Bhoomika Chawla and Ravi Kishan.

Salman’s best performance in Tere Naam has turned a mature 21. But has he matured? A remake of the Tamil film Sethu, director Satish Kaushik’s Tere Naam looks at a ruffian’s obsessive love for an ordinary girl. It’s said to be based on a true story, and as such, doesn’t provide the regular dose of predictable twists. Radhe (Salman Khan) is killing time at the railway station, when he comes across Nirjara (Bhoomika Chawla), the priest’s daughter. Though he initially rags her by taking her lunch box and asking her to salute him, he slowly falls in love. Nirjara is terrified of Radhe, who proposes to her by saying he’ll settle down with a job as a bouncer in a beer bar. She’s too stunned at that moment, but a few days later, says she doesn’t have any feelings for him. Angered at the rejection, Radhe kidnaps her and tells her: “I don’t want to rape you, but just want you to be happy.” That’s enough for Nirjara to fall for him too, but before anything happens, he’s beaten up by goons and loses his mental balance. Though the tale has its ups and downs, the film is boosted by Himesh Reshammiya’s superb music, Mahendra Verma’s action sequences and Jainendra Jain’s well-structured dialogues. S Sriram’s cinematography is appealing, though the flow is marred by too many shots of the Taj Mahal and passing trains.

In her first Hindi film (she’s pretty well-known in the Telugu film world), Bhoomika is fairly spontaneous. However, it’s Salman who really impresses despite that hideous hairstyle. Whether he’s playing the confused vagabond or the helpless lunatic, he comes across naturally.

In this throwback interview that happened after the release of Tere Naam in 2003, Salman Khan speaks on playing Radhe, and whether it was inspored by his relationship with Aishwarya Rai. Tere Naam is rumoured to be based on your relationship with Aishwarya Rai? Everybody has asked me this question! You ask me this, although you know the same plot has been made in three other languages. Radhe keeps his frustrations inside himself. He keeps wondering why the girl cannot see he is the one person that loves her the most, and if God has put him on earth, it is so she can be with him. I love the plot. The audiences will love my character Radhe. Destiny is the villain of the plot. All the things that Radhe has done to support and protect his friends catch up with him. My character goes through great trauma. This is what happens when you lose faith in the man who loves you to death. Is this character close to your heart? I would do anything for those whom I care about. That makes me like Radhe. But after a point, the character is certainly not me. I empathise with my character. The way I see it, the message of Tere Naam is: do not destroy your life for one person because there are lots of other people who love you a lot more, though maybe not in the same way. What’s with that weird hairstyle? You know, school teachers would taunt you to cut your hair? They would say, ‘Hero banta hai!’ Well, I play that small-town hero with long hair. The wannabe Salman Khan, probably. With the hair comes the attitude, intensity and romance. I play Radhe, the local hero. I am not a goonda in the film. I play a very ‘correct’ person. Though I am jobless, I would do anything to protect family and friends. Though the media was largely hostile, audiences have welcomed your new film? I don’t think the general public actually believes everything that’s written about me. No matter what the crisis, I was always supported by my fans. One doesn’t have to shout from the rooftops to prove one is a good guy. Making Tere Naam a success was one way for my fans to tell my detractors to lay off. I think the success of my films is a big slap on the face of those who try to sell extra copies of their magazines by writing garbage about me. Curiously, your first release after the hit-and-run controversy took a much larger opening than the film that came before. Yes, but Tere Naam was my first release in two years. My two earlier releases, Tumko Na Bhool Payenge and Yeh Hai Jalwa, opened well. Audiences smell a product they like. No matter how much promotion and publicity happens, they won’t go for a film unless they want. When I promote a film I don’t like, it shows on my face. Tere Naam opened a week after Duggu’s (Hrithik Roshan) Koi… Mil Gaya. Even he experienced so many professional setbacks. And look where that one film put him.

You say your likes and dislikes show on your face. But acting is all about lying? Not for me. For me acting comes straight from the heart. In that sense I don’t act at all. I think to feel the character’s pain I’ve to be myself. That’s why I’m very careful about what I do in my films. In Tere Naam I played a character who smoked endlessly. I told my fans not to imitate him. I wanted him to be the kind of guy that parents could point to their son and say, “See, that’s what we don’t want him to be.” He was a very real, in many ways very pure-hearted character but out of step with today’s reality. Tere Naam was a very dark film. Do you think it would’ve been bigger success otherwise? I don’t know. For that we’ll have to make the film again. Yes, in Tere Naam my character didn’t get the girl. If he did, it would’ve been just another Hindi film. I got calls from everyone saying the ending shook them. Which is another way of saying it was accepted. I’d say Tere Naam was my most off beat role. In all my films I kept doing the tears-and-laughter routine. Here I really let my emotions go. Your character was involved with excessive violence. But I wasn’t being violent for my own sake. There’s violence all around us. But my two films after Tere Naam, Baghban and a film tentatively titled Dil Churaya Aapne have no violence at all. These are very Hindustani films. Working with Amitabh Bachchan in Baghban was an awesome experience. I can go on and on about him. But what’s the point? The other film is a marital drama, which shows that the first fight between a couple is always the beginning of the end. It’s got very real scenes between a husband and wife. They fight over nothing, as most couples do. Everything is going right for you. Then why do you sound so unhappy? We’re all born with unhappiness. That’s the one “given” of existence. In school you get constantly berated by the teacher, you get out for a while, play cricket and feel better. Then you land up with a wretched job, marry a woman whom things aren’t okay with, worry about your children… People you love leave and die. I was so shocked when director Anant Balani died. I did my second film (Patthar Ke Phool) with him. He was a dear friend and I lost touch with him. One of my schoolteachers also passed away recently. I wish I had met him. He used to beat me in school but I knew he intended well for me. Get Latest News Live on Times Now along with Breaking News and Top Headlines from Bollywood, Entertainment News and around the world.