Salman Khan says younger actors are ‘insecure’, unwilling to work with each other

Salman Khan criticizes younger actors' insecurity in Bollywood, questions industry's creative impulse, and discusses challenges filmmakers face today.

Bollywood superstar Salman Khan feels the younger crop of actors in the industry are ‘insecure’ and unwilling to work with each other. Salman, who turns 60 this year, met the Mumbai press on Wednesday (March 26) evening ahead of his latest release, Sikandar. During the interaction, Salman lamented the tentativeness and self-absorption of younger stars. He was asked about the concerning state of Hindi cinema, with genuine hit films becoming few and far in between.

“The actors today have become very insecure,” Salman said. “Do you see any of the younger generation stars doing two-hero films? I have offered a film individually and in combination to younger actors but they all refused to work with each other. They presented different excuses but the fact is they did not want to work with each other.”

Salman said he will not reveal their names but would do so once the film gets made and eventually becomes a hit.

“In our generation, I have worked with Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Jackie Shroff, Rahul Roy, Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Kapoor... We used to do 2-3 films together at one point. And god knows how many guest appearances we have done for each other. It was about our fans coming together and fetching that much of box-office collections. We also became close friends by shooting for 100-150 days together.”

Salman also questioned the creative impulse of filmmakers and producers in Bollywood.

“My father (veteran screenwriter Salim Khan) says we are making films for the wrong reasons. Like if we’ve the dates of an actor, ‘So, let’s make a film’, or the heroine is about to get married or is expecting, ‘So, let’s make a film’ or we’ve a distributor or money, ‘So, ‘let’s make a film’. But films should be made only when we’ve the best script ever.”

“People who were making serious films have shifted to action or comedy because this is what is working right now... We are going wrong on the budget. Once our budgets are controlled, everything is going to be okay.” According to the actor, writers and filmmakers, who have studied abroad, often lack the emotional depth in their stories.