Blame it on destiny or his own bad conduct, Bollywood actor Salman Khan has always been a bad boy, at least in public if not in private where he is known for charitable work.
In his film career spanning nearly three decades, the 52-year-old Salman has been involved in more than half a dozen major controversies—be it killing black bucks, his most famous hit-and-run story or his stormy affair-added together with betrayal with former Miss World and Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai or even his frequent quarrels with the media which saw bash bashing photo-journalists on three to four occasions.
He has also been in the news because of his reported link-ups and break-ups with other leading actress like Somy Ali, Sangeeta Bijlani and Katrina Kaif. Somi Ali is settled in United States, while Sangeeta Bijlani married former Indian skipper Mohammed Azharuddin only to get separated from the cricketer in the later years. Aishwarya Rai married Abhishek Bachchan, while Katrina Kaif severed her links with Salman and entered into a brief affair with Ranbir Kapoor.
Salman’s first brush with law was on September 27-28, 1998 when he and some co-stars were accused of shooting black bucks in Rajasthan. On Thursday,a Jodhpur court convicted and sentencedthe Dabangg actor to five years’ imprisonment for killing two blackbucks in Rajasthan. However, Khan's co-stars Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Sonali Bendre and Neelam who were also accused have been acquitted.
Salman’s public image took a nose dive, when he in an inebriated state rammed his Toyota land Cruiser lexus into the American Express Bakery and laundry at Bandra (west) on intervening the night of September 27-28, 2002, killing one Nurullah Mehboob Sharif and injuring four others.
The much-discussed mishap took place, amid reports of his break-up with Ashwariya Rai.
In the hit-and-run case, a trial court on May 6,2015 convicted Salman for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment.
Much to the relief of Salman, the Bombay the Bombay High Court overturned the trial court’s verdict of May 6, 2015 and acquitted the actor of all charges in the much-discussed 2002 hit-and-run case. However, an appeal filed by the Maharashtra government challenging Salman’s acquittal in the 2002 hit-and-run case is pending before the Supreme Court.
As his film Dabangg did a brisk business at the box office weekend in the second week of September 2010, Salman Khan found himself in an unseemly controversy, after Indian news channel “Aaj Tak” broadcast the Bollywood actor’s interview aired earlier by Pakistan’s leading television channel Express 24X7 in which he had made controversial remarks about the 26/11 attacks.
Attributing the “hype” surrounding the 26/11 attacks to the fact that “elite people” were targeted by the Pakistani terrorists, Salman had said in his interview: “Everybody knew that the (Pakistani) Government was not behind it and it was a terrorist attack. More than anything else, our security failed. We have had lot of attacks earlier, and all of them were not from Pakistan. They were from within. This time because Taj and Oberoi were under attack, everybody just stood up”.
However, within hours after he came under a severe flak from various quarters for his “uninformed”, “childish”, ”irresponsible” and “arrogant” statement that the 26/11 attacks were hyped because "elite people" were targeted, the Bollywood actor apologised for "hurting" the sentiments of the people in the process.