Mumbai: Salman Khan- The weight in the name says it all, and when it comes to the Bollywood superstars, the instant names that cross our minds are- Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, and Salman Khan.
However, Salman considers Akshay Kumar as the biggest star.
This is what the Tubelight' actor said to a daily, "Today when they say (superstars) I think there is Aamir, Shah Rukh, me, and Akshay Kumar. We do fewer films I do two films a year, Aamir does one film in three years, Akshay does four-five films a year. So you do the math. The man who works that hard and makes the maximum amount of money, and supports those many production companies, those many units, and those many directors every four months is a bigger star."
"I used to do that. I think Akki is the only one who understood that back in the day, char-paanch lakh ke liye itni jyaada mehnat kar rahe the, ab crores ke liye utni mehnat nahi kar rahe hain... (Earlier, we would work hard for lacs, but for crores we aren't working harder)When we were paid so little per film, we did more films. Now we get paid so much more for a film, and we are doing fewer films," added the actor when quizzed about doing more than two films a year like Akshay Kumar.
On asking the reason behind him doing fewer films per year, Salman admitted, "I think if you come with a good film every two months, people will want to go and see it. Two months is 60 days. That's a lot. But the film has got to be better than the earlier one. So this phase is ki aai thi ek superb picture, usko dhundhla karo and then you come up with another one. (You come up with a superb picture and then directly with another film, which eventually fades off your earlier film) That is how I think. So, I do about two-and-a-half films a year. I am going to up the number to three next year."
On the professional front, Salman's film Tubelight' releases on this Eid and is working on Tiger Zinda Hai' with Katrina Kaif.
5