When Salman took ₹1 to play HIV+ in 'Phir Milenge'
Salman Khan, who has been a part of the Hindi film industry for over three decades, has done several non-mainstream films. One such film was Revathi's 2004 release Phir Milenge (currently available on Amazon Prime Video). In a recent social media post, producer Shailendra Singh revealed that Khan took up the role of an HIV positive man when the entire industry had turned it down.
'Salman is the Rambo, Terminator, Superman of India...'
In Phir Milenge, Shilpa Shetty Kundra played the lead role of a woman who is diagnosed with HIV and is wrongfully terminated from her job. Khan played her former lover, while Abhishek Bachchan portrayed her lawyer. "At that time, and even now, Salman is one of the biggest youth icons. So imagine convincing Salman to do a film on AIDS when he is actually the Rambo and the Terminator and the Superman of India," Singh said.
Salman dies in the climax due to HIV: Singh
Singh added, "The plot line for the lead actor is that he gets HIV and then he dies. The whole industry said no and that's the day I called Salman Khan." He further said, "Salman dies in the climax due to HIV. Obviously his fans were not happy but the message of the film got across the nation." Khan made a notable extended cameo appearance in the film.
'He has done this film literally for free'
In an earlier interview with Rediff, Revathi had revealed that Khan had offered himself for the film after he heard about it from Shetty Kundra. "Shilpa mentioned the film to Salman, and he reached out to me saying he wanted to be involved. I called him back 10 minutes later to confirm if he was serious about joining. He affirmed his interest, and he essentially worked on the film for free," she revealed.
