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- By Parinda News Bureau, April 14, 2006, 12:29 IST
Vivek Oberoi took this opportunity to visit Salma, Salman Khan's ailing mother, and that could be because of his reduced connections after Aishwarya Rai dumped him for Abhishek Bachchan. Remaing in the bad books of both the camps (Bachchan camp and Salman Khan camp) had been tough. He had sent feelers to Salman soon after parting ways with Ash and Salman is supposed to have told him ke teri panoti gayee (Your jinx is gone) as during his Ash period Khan had only flops (barring Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam) and Oberoi too had a similar experience. By visiting Salma and later, Salim in his house, he has offered an olive branch to what seemed a powerful star who could ruin his career.
But the powerful is not so powerful if compared with the other camp, Bachchans. When Amitabh, who charges a fraction of what Salman Khan charges as his fee, was ailing the entire industry turned up. But when Salman is in jail, you can count the number of bigwigs on your fingers. Besides the siblings (and I include Boney Kapoor in the relatives!), dear friend Karisma (and Kareena and Shahid), John Abrahm and Bipasha, Govinda (who was gifted Mercedes by Salman in lieu of the fee for doing his film), Sunil Shetty, Subhash Ghai and David Dhawan (Salman's director), Sajid Nadiadwala (his producer) no big name has been around Salman in his hour of trouble. The mighty have fallen!
Conspicious by their absence (because they are shooting abroad) are Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra and Sushmita Sen. But those who have carefully distanced themselves are too many to count. Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Kajol, Karan Johar, Yash Chopra, Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Khanna, Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan, Shatrughan Sinha, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff...and many more. Reminds me of the time Sanjay Dutt was in jail. Dutt household and office appeared barren.
Not surprisingly, when a reporter asked Salman, after he was released on bail and spoke to press,"Did the crew of Hum Saath Saath Hain stand by you?" Khan refused to make any comment. He diplomatically said, "As long as my brothers, sisters, Helen Aunty and my parents stand by me, I can handle the tough times the future may hold"
Worse, besides being deserted by industry bigwigs, Salman has been dumped by the advertisers. He is not considered a role model any more and has lost several assignments. Salman was to endorse a paan masala brand and was to sign a Rs 7 crores contract for the endorsement. The offer has been withdrawn and according to ad maker Prahlad Kakkar, "It is because he is not a role model any more."
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