SRK, Sallu are mature adults: Nikhil

Interview with TOI

Q. Much is being said about your shifting allegiance from SRK's camp to Salman's...

A, This kind of question makes me feel like a calculative, petty, scheming person who is changing camps. I'm not being diplomatic or politically correct. You think there's a camp? There's not. The proof is that I could go to Salman Khan's party, even though I am close to Shah Rukh Khan. I've interacted with Salman earlier and was even part of his Being Human show in Dubai. It's not that Shah Rukh has not spoken to me after that. Shah Rukh doesn't have a problem that I interact with Salman. Salman doesn't have a problem that I'm Shah Rukh's friend. He's always been affectionate towards me, encouraging me, which he doesn't need to. This is proof enough of the fact that I can mingle with whoever I want, have relationships with whoever I want as an adult.

Shah Rukh and Salman are two mature adults. They choose to disagree with each other. We should respect that and leave it at that. And this doesn't mean they hate each other or that they are sworn enemies. That's not what it looks like to us, people who are there. Shah Rukh, to his credit, has never said a bad thing about Salman to me.

Q. Has he ever said a good thing about him?

A. He has said a lot of good things about Salman. I don't even know if I should be saying this because it is someone's private opinion. But Salman very recently told me that he disagrees with Shah Rukh, but he cannot deny the fact that even today he thinks of Shah Rukh as his younger brother. And I know Salman very well. He doesn't like... he might kill me for this... I don't think it's correct... he shared this in a private moment, but I'm saying this to make you understand these two individuals and their thought process.

I can tell you personally, doesn't Salman know I'm close to Shah Rukh and Shah Rukh's friend? Despite that, he chooses to encourage me and be affectionate towards me. It shows he's got a very big heart. Salman has a very intelligent man lurking inside him. You spend time with him, you learn a lot from him. There's so much; may be he's not the most articulate person. Maybe he puts things across very casually, as if he's just a college boy. But if you look deep into what he's saying, he says very strong things. If you can understand them and make use of them, you'll only grow stronger. So, any opportunity to spend time with them, with these accomplished people, is an opportunity which no newcomer should let go of.

Q. As a common friend, don't you ever feel caught in between?

A. They've never discussed this problem with us; at least I've never faced it. I discussed " Dabangg" with Shah Rukh recently and he liked it much more than I did. He said Salman's outstanding in the film. He doesn't have to lie to me. He could've said all bad things about the film and the actor. He analyzed it in terms of story and script and why it has become such a big success. It shows that, sometimes, in our lives, we are not friendly with everybody. This doesn't make them bad people or us bad. Just that at times your thought processes don't match. But that doesn't mean that they are sworn enemies. Shah Rukh has never asked me to choose my friends. If I have a problem with a star, I'm not going to tell Shah Rukh not to talk to him.

Q. Surviving in Bollywood seems to be a complex art form, especially for outsiders. True?

A. It's not easy. This is an extraordinary profession because even the dividends are manifold. I don't know when the industry got divided into outsiders and insiders. The actors who I grew up watching... Dilip Kumar, Manoj Kumar, everyone struggled. Then, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra struggled... right up to Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar. But, it all somewhere stopped then. We like to see children of icons succeed (like the Gandhis and Nehrus), and just like them we like to see children of stars succeed. Eventually it's business and producers in the business know this. The audience here has a curiosity to see a certain star's child – something that an outsider cannot generate. In 2007-2008, 22 actors made their debut. Out of them, I'm the only one who is not a TV actor, model or from a film family.