'I do get on my knees every morning, but it is for God.'
Salman Khan opened up about professional regrets, controversies and reconciliation during the latest Weekend Ka Vaar episode of Bigg Boss 19.
He addressed the failure of his film Sikandar, his differences with its director A R Murugadoss, his fallout with Dabangg director Abhinav Kashyap, and his long-speculated patch-up with singer Arijit Singh.
'Sikandar had a good script and yet it failed at the box office,' Salman said on the show.
He revealed that the film was backed by Producer Sajid Nadiadwala, who later opted out, and eventually, Murugadoss disowned the project.
In a pointed response to Murugadoss' comments alleging Salman's lack of interest and his late arrivals on set that led to the film's failure, the actor remarked, 'I used to reach on sets at 9 pm because my bones were broken.'
Without taking names, he referred to the director's latest Tamil film Madhraasi, starring Sivakarthikeyan and Rukmini Vasanth and said, 'His other film, where the actor used to come at 6 am... it still flopped.'
Abhinav Kashyap had criticised Salman and his family, and Salman took the opportunity to address it.
'The Dabangg director went against me and also Aamir (Khan) and Shah Rukh (Khan). He kept criticising everyone. I just want to ask him: Did you get work after that? None of them will ever work with you in the future. Even the people associated with them will not.'
Post Dabangg, Abhinav has directed only one film, Besharam in 2013, with Ranbir Kapoor.
'Whatever goodwill he had, he destroyed it,' Salman added.
'What I feel saddest about is that he destroyed himself.'
Abhinav had once said in an interview that 'I had called him a goon, and now he is trying to show that he is a big admirer of ours. The same Anurag Kashyap whom he troubled during Tere Naam -- Anurag had left that film; they did not remove him. Now he is seen praising Anurag's work. Of course, he will. Soon he will be on his knees, even begging.'
Salman referred to that and said, 'About you making me get on my knees... I do get on my knees every morning, but it is for God.'
Salman then responded to a contestant, who had hesitated to approach him, as he felt he resembled singer Arijit Singh.
'Arijit and I are very good friends now. There was a misunderstanding -- and it was from my side,' Salman said with a smile.
He revealed that Arijit had sung for his film Tiger 3 and will be lending his voice for his upcoming film Galwan.
This patch-up comes after years of speculation about a cold war between the actor and the singer that had kept Arijit's voice out of Salman's projects.
Photograph curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff