The lover boy Prem turned to Bhai in Tere Naam, an image Salman Khan carries brilliantly till date

Ayush Vashistha

One can say, “Abdul Rashid Salim Salman Khan turns 57 today” or just “Bhai turns 57 today”. The latter saves a lot of effort as Bhai is enough to tell us who the person in question is.

When someone asked Salman at a press conference almost half a decade ago how he became Bhai, his answer was, “Earlier, the Bhai connotation used to be like a ‘dabangg’ kind of connotation… it was like a negative connotation… Bhai… Bhai… Bhai hai ye…! It was related to the underworld and stuff like that…”

Salman for some is the gangster Bhai, for some is a philanthropist Bhai but for the masses, he is the Bhai, who is obliged to “protect the good” on celluloid.

It all began with his character Radhe in Tere Naam in 2003. Prior to that Salman was Prem from Maine Pyar Kiya, artist Prem from Hum Aapke Hain Koun, Sammer from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Vishal from Pyar Kiya to Darna Kya.

Renowned film critic and box office analyst Taran Adarsh believes that Tere Naam was a turning point in Salman’s career. Before that, he was known as a “lover boy” but not the Bhai with a heart of gold. As Radhe, with his middle-parted hair, a golden chain around the neck, nonchalant masculinity, he emerged as a saviour.

Komal Nahata, an acknowledged anchor and film analyst, is of the opinion that every actor, after being established as a big star, does films where he/she experiments and if that experiment pays off, it brings about a change in how he/she is received by the audience. Tere Naam was that experiment for Salman, which put forward that Bhai image and he carried it brilliantly.

For Salman, he was just Sohail’s bhai to begin with as, at the same press conference, he went on to say, “…now because Sohail calls me bhai, so Sohail’s friends also started calling me bhai and it so happens that even seniors started calling me bhai. But from Salman, Sallu, Salle, Sallu bhai to Bhai, it has been a pretty good journey for me.”