Salman Khan: Audience appreciation is my national award

Superstar Salman Khan says the love he has got from the audience for his latest release Bajrangi Bhaijaan is his national award.

His co-star Kareena Kapoor recently said in an interview that she feels Salman might get the coveted recognition for his work in the superhit movie. "It is sweet of people to say that (National Award). I think there are a lot of other people who deserve national award than me. I appreciate that. People have loved the film ...watched it three four times.. that is the national award for me," Salman told reporters here.

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On his acting skills being lauded, Salman says, "I haven't considered myself as a star or actor. This is my badappan (modesty)." The 49-year-old actor is elated with the response to the film. "There was a feeling that it would do well. We did expect that people would appreciate the film... and we got to know that we were on the same wave length. Whenever we make films on India-Pakistan, we deal with army and terrorists. We have never shown the normal side of people in both the countries. We were dealing with humanity and people have liked that," he said.

In the film, Salman helps a mute Pakistani girl and he theme has garnered good reviews across the border too. "We are happy with the response. Earlier, there was negativity with this film so we were scared initially but we were saying it is a positive film," he said.

"Aamir and Shah Rukh launched the look of the film and those, who all watched the film from the industry have liked it. The numbers decide if the film has got appreciation or not but this film has got respect as well," he added. The screenplay of Bajrangi Bhaijaan was written by S S Rajamouli's father K V Vijayendra Prasad, who had also written Baahubali.