On the eve of Salman’s 55th birthday, music director Vinay Sapru shared his experience of the megastar’s generosity with ABP LIVE. In an exclusive telephonic chat, Vinay, the one half of the famous Vinay Sapru-Radhika Rao pair, said, “I can not forget how Salman Khan cheered up a demoralised shooting unit in Russia. We were there to shoot our film Lucky – No Time for Love. One night there was a massive snowfall. Both I and Radhika were upset and much tensed. We were not sure how we were going to shoot for the next day in that adverse situation."
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"Shooting outside India is very expensive and we would have faced a huge loss if shooting got postponed for one day. We were very anxious. Everyone had their dinner and went to their rooms. Only I and Radhika were having our meal. Suddenly one of Salman’s close acquaintances came to us and handed over a packet. He told us that Salman himself had sent it for us. We were stunned to see that the packet contained 2 lakh Russian ruble. There was a note inside that packet in which Salman wrote, ‘This is for you guys. Don’t get bothered," he added.
Vinay further added, “Salman wanted to let us feel secure. He was not ready to let the unit down during shooting. This is how he is. This is why he is a super star.”
Vinay also shared a dramatic experience when Salman took an unoffered role in their directorial debut ‘Lucky – No Time for Love’. “I and Radhika were planning to cast Sohail Khan for the lead role. One day we went to the complex where Sohail lives. We were supposed to read the script to Sohail. Suddenly we came across Salman who lives at the ground floor of the same housing complex. Salman asked, where are you going? I said, we are going to Sohail's place to discuss a script. Salman took us inside his house and suddenly congratulated us and told that, listen, I am going to play the lead role in your movie. It was a dream come true moment for us,” said Vinay.
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Salman Khan starrer Dabangg (2010) emerged as a massive hit, becoming a popular franchise in the Hindi film industry. The first film also featured tracks that became chartbusters. One of the songs that caught attention was the romantic ‘Tere Mast Mast Do Nain’ featuring Salman and Sonakshi Sinha. The song was co-directed by Vinay Sapru.
“When we saw the song, we thought it lacked the flavour of the character. Chulbul Pandey is someone who had his own swag and he isn’t someone who is romantic-romantic. So we weaved in a story where he sees Rajjo and the romance happens. We also asked Salman to wear black shirt and pant and added the heart wala goggles to the look. We didn’t know that this look would become so iconic,” said Vinay.
He added, “When we first proposed Salman to wear a heart shaped goggles, we were a bit confused. The song was supposed to be shot at night. So it was very uncanny to wear goggles in the dark. But we thought that the scene would match Chulbul Pandey’s character perfectly. Salman agreed and the rest is history. The song went on to become viral.”
Vinay and Radhika, who have been around in the industry for two decades, are known for directing music videos, along with film tracks. Working with ‘Bhaijaan’ Salman has become one of their fondest memories.