Big films will do commercially well only if they are good, says Salman Khan

Bollywood superstar Salman Khan, whose movie ”Antim: The Final Truth” released recently, says if the script of a film is good, it will bring people to theatres.

The action-thriller film, also starring Salman’s brother-in-law Aayush Sharma and popular TV actor Mahima Makwana, is an adaptation of the Marathi hit “Mulshi Pattern” (2018), which explores the hard conditions faced by farmers that pushes some of them towards crime.

“Only one thing, which is the script, can bring people to theatres. It totally depends on the promo, the trailer and once people like it then they go to watch the movie in theatres. Then it is the word of mouth that helps a film.

”No matter how big the film is, it will not do well if it is not good. The smallest of films do well and do big in numbers because of the script. That’s how the film works commercially,” Khan told PTI in an interview.

The actor said he is happy with the reaction to the Mahesh Manjrekar-directed ”Antim”, which is described as a gripping tale of two powerful men with polar opposite ideologies; one a cop (Khan) and the other a gangster (Sharma).

”It is the happiest moment for all of us that people went to theatres to watch the movie and that Aayush was appreciated and everyone else too was appreciated including me, Mahesh, Mahima, and others. ”It is a win-win situation for us. Now, we are going to all cities to promote the movie and make them aware that I am not there in the film for just 15 minutes but more,” he said.

According to Khan, the misconception that he has a screen time of barely 10 minutes in “Antim” is clear after the release of the movie.

“People had seen ‘Mulshi Pattern’ and the actor who is there in the original is there for four scenes. Going by this notion that I am also there for that much time, then it means that Aayush has taken an opening of Rs 4 crore. My opening is slightly more,” the actor, whose highest opening day film was 2015’s “Prem Ratan Dhan Payo” grossing Rs 41 crore, quipped.

Khan said they expanded the plot of ”Antim” from the original film before Aayush came on board and he trained hard for the role.

In “Antim”, Khan has been portrayed as a cop, who is not larger-than-life, unlike his outing as the policeman Chulbul Pandey in the hugely popular “Dabangg” series.

Asked about this, the actor said he tries his best to portray what his audiences want.

“I need to give my audience different things that they want. I have to give them what they like to see in me, action or romance or humour all the time,” he said.

“If you see my films, all of them are clean, there is no abusive language or kissing. You will see a lot of action or little action. But the values and the dos and don’ts will be the same,” he added.