Interview with Mohar Basu, Author of “Salman Khan: The Sultan of Bollywood”

An insightful conversation with Mohar Basu on Salman Khan’s stardom, cinema’s fading joy, and why the superstar remains an emotional constant across generations.

on Jan 27, 2026

Interview with Mohar Basu, Author of “Salman Khan: The Sultan of Bollywood”

Frontlist: Salman Khan has been both intensely adored and sharply scrutinised over the decades. As a journalist who has closely covered the Hindi film industry, what drew you to explore his journey in a long-form book at this point in his career?

Mohar: Over the past year we have noted that the joy of going to the movies for the fun of it, is fast eroding. Perhaps it’s because the movie industry is unable to make films that is able to inject that pure joy into its viewers. Or the fact that the subjects they are choosing are slightly more esoteric, many rage bait and none honestly care to do the primary thing it's meant to do - spread happiness. Movies, much like many creative pursuits today, believe that their primary purpose is to make money. Box office and records is the goal. Sure, it is. But what else is a movie or any piece of art doing to you. As Salman Khan recently said at an event, the purpose of films is to make you leave you theatre a slightly better person than you walked in. It's a naive idea but this naïveté and optimism is important to a film's ability to find its people. At such a bleak time in the movie business, it’s essential to visit the story of a superstar whose movies are built around him having a grand time on screen and people queuing up to see him have a blast. At its core, the idea of this book was to celebrate a movie star who is all about the magic of the 70mm screen. I hope people read it and feel that joy isn’t such an outdated feeling after all.

Frontlist: Your book positions Salman Khan as “the man, the myth, the megastar.” How did you navigate the balance between public perception, media narratives, and the more private, lesser-seen facets of his life while researching the book?

Mohar: At the very start, I took a call with my editor Bushra Ahmed that we will not shy away from the various narratives of Salman Khan’s life. It is much easier than expected because he himself has always candidly addressed conjectures and controversies without mincing words. That said, the research for this book wasn’t easy. There are large phases of his career where he hasn’t given interviews. It becomes harder to get a sense of what was happening with him in the years when he wasn’t talking to the press. In hindsight, even the gaps, helped me understand how his stardom is built entirely on his own accord, without any help from the press. He is the superstar he is because he is directly connected with his fans at an emotional level. Be it with his random tweets or what he says on his episodes of Bigg Boss, this is a star who is a man of the people. Even if social media ceases to exist today, people will love Salman Khan with the same frenzy they always have. I stopped trying to “balance” Salman Khan. Balance suggests neutrality and neutrality is dishonest when you’re dealing with a figure this enigmatic and even polarising. Instead, I treated public perception itself as the subject. Salman is an argument India keeps having with itself and I stated it as it is.

Frontlist: From Prem to Tiger, Salman Khan’s screen persona has evolved alongside a changing India. In your view, how has his stardom mirrored shifts in audience expectations and popular culture over the years?

Mohar: If you line up Salman Khan’s films across the decades, you can see the country changing around him. Prem belonged to a time when love stories left us with optimism and when the idea of the hero was gentle. By the time Tiger and Bajrangi arrived, India felt louder, more tense, more divided and those characters responded to that mood. Salman did reinvent himself to carry his own emotional truth into newer, harsher worlds. If you notice him films carefully, you know his values. That said, over the course of my research I realised that audiences don’t just watch him to keep up with change; they watch him because he makes change feel less unsettling.

Frontlist: The book draws on fan interviews, long-time collaborators, and rare visual material. What did these voices reveal about Salman Khan that mainstream reportage often misses?

Mohar: What these voices revealed was a much nicer Salman than the media narratives allowed him. Mainstream reportage often treats him as an unpredictable force. The impression is that he is a star who bends the industry to his will. Fans and collaborators describe something else - this is a man deeply enmeshed in his friendships. Loyalty is what defines him. And he really wants to make the world a better place with his philanthropic work.

Frontlist: Controversies and comebacks form a significant part of Salman Khan’s story. As a reporter known for nuanced, critical coverage, how did you approach these chapters without reducing the narrative to sensationalism?

Mohar: I was very conscious of not letting the controversies become a spectacle chapter. Salman Khan’s legal and public crises have unfolded over decades, and they’ve been reported, debated, and discussed exhaustively. Repeating that coverage would add nothing to my book. What I focused on instead was emotional consequences. I particularly enjoyed writing about the film Sultan. That film mirrors Salman’s own triumph as a man who is able to bounce back from the worst. As a reporter, you learn that accountability isn’t just about punishment or acquittal. In Salman’s case, the striking thing is how little the public sentiment around him altered. Writing those bits about hai controversies meant staying close to facts, resisting moral grandstanding and getting different fan accounts to understand how do you forgive things you are morally opposed to in a celebrity. Some perspectives were eye opening honestly. I trust that my readers will make up their own mind without being instructed on how to feel about their favourite star.

Frontlist: You have extensively reported on systemic issues within Bollywood, including power structures and workplace culture. Did your investigative background influence how you examined stardom, accountability, and resilience in this biography?

Mohar: You can’t study Hindi cinema seriously without knowing that films and stars are social phenomena. My academic interest and education in sociology helped with how I approached Salman Khan’s journey. While he is an extraordinary figure, I also looked at how his stardom emerges from, and speaks to, class aspiration, masculinity and community. That perspective didn’t make me judge him. In any case, I have never judged Salman Khan. I have always been endlessly fascinated by Salman's stardom. I have always been more interested in understanding why he connects so deeply and endures so powerfully. Salman Khan becomes, in that sense, a lens through which we can read not just the industry, but the audience, the times and the emotional structures that sustain popular cinema.

Frontlist: In an era where celebrity images are constantly reshaped by social media and instant opinion, what do you think explains Salman Khan’s enduring, almost mythic connection with audiences across generations?

Mohar: For me, Salman Khan’s connection with audiences is tied to moments of their own joy. For example, I watched Ek Tha Tiger with friends and I remember how pleasantly surprised I was with the politics of the film and how it was packaged as a glossy action entertainer. Years later, I went for the Diwali first-day-first-show of Tiger 3 at a local multiplex. The hall was full at 8 am. People were clapping, hooting, whistling. The world had changed beyond recognition between the first Tiger film and last. But that sense of being in a room where everyone was feeling the same thing returns instantly with Salman, more than any other actor. Salman Khan is still doing what cinema is meant to do - pull people out of their separate lives and make them react together. And what sets him apart is that the audience reacts to him, a little to the movie but mostly to him. I don’t know any other superstar who is a show all by himself.