It all started with 1999 when the eldest son of Salim Khan, reputed and revered screenplay and dialogue writer, was embroiled in a controversial black buck hunting police case. And it has not stopped since. While he has grown into a money-making Rajnikanth-style superstar in Bollywood, Salman Khan has always been in the news for the wrong reasons. And while his films refuse to get out of the 300 crore club, his personal life has been in troubled waters for almost fifteen years now. Which do you think is the biggest controversy he has unfortunately been in over these years?
The infamous black buck shooting case happened in 1999 when Khan and his co-stars from Hum Saath Saath Hain were accused of hunting an endangered chinkara and blackbuck deer while shooting in Jodhpur for the film. The case is still being dragged out in courts.
The hit-and-run case that we all know about happened in 2002 and while the verdict came out two months back and he is out on bail presently, the case has not ended yet as hearings and appeals remain to be played out in court. This is the murkiest controversy he has ever been in with accusations of manipulating witnesses and improper evidence flying in from all corners.
Known to be protective of his girlfriends, the Salman-Aishwarya episode was tabloid headlines for months after Rai Bachchan finally broke it off with him citing “abuse, physical assault and indignity”. Things were not too cool when Aishwarya started dating Viveik Oberoi either. Oberoi and Khan had quite a public spat and Oberoi even held a press conference to share his side of the story. When Khan was invited by Abhishek to his wedding, that raised eyebrows too. Khan has been linked to various women since then and he does not quite seem to stick with any of them.
His next brawl was with Shah Rukh Khan at Salman’s then girlfriend, Katrina Kaif’s birthday party. That fight lasted till last year when both the Khans cordially hugged each other at Baba Siddiqui’s iftaar party. Things are not hunky-dory between them and the two keep taking potshots at each other often. When Karan Johar got Salman to open his last season of Koffee with Karan rather than his BFF Shah Rukh, the rumour mill went crazy with news of a possible SRK-K Jo rift.
The seventh season of Bigg Boss, the reality show he hosts, was particularly rocky for him. From being accused of indecent comments, being homophobic, showing partiality towards certain contestants and lobbying for a Bollywood starlet in the house whom he knew quite well, Khan was left flustered with all the hate coming his way. He finally took to Twitter to explain himself and even hinted that he might not host any more seasons of the show.
To promote his last film, Jai Ho, Khan participated in a friendly kite-flying event with Narendra Modi. People did not take this well and protested against politics and Bollywood coming together and stars campaigning for political leaders. He also reacted angrily after being criticised for performing at Akhilesh Yadav’s Saifai Mahotsav right after the Muzaffarnagar riots in 2014.
