Earlier this month, the Indian movie "Sultan" was officially announced to be released on August 31.
This is also the sixth Indian film introduced by the mainland this year after "Mysterious Superstar", "Little Lolita's Monkey God Uncle", "Starting Line", "Baahubali King 2" and "Toilet Hero".
Since "WrestleMania! Since "Daddy", Indian films have been hung all the way in the mainland film market, and both word of mouth and box office have achieved good results.
"Little Lori's Monkey God Uncle", introduced in March this year, is already an old film in 2015, and the film still got 285 million box office after its release, which is really very powerful.
It is worth mentioning that Salman Khan, the actor of "Uncle Monkey God" in the movie, also happens to be the star of "Sultan".
Bollywood has always had the saying "three sweats and one horse", which represents the four movie stars who have occupied the box office list of Indian movies for many years. Among them, Salman Khan, along with Amir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan, and known as the "Three Khans", is the most influential movie star in Bollywood.
In India, Salman Khan is seen by fans as "The Badshah Of Bollywood" (The Badshah Of Bollywood). But for Chinese audiences, Salman's name is somewhat unfamiliar to Amir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan.
Like many Indian actors, Salman Khan was born into a film family, and his father, Salim Khan, was a famous screenwriter in Bollywood.
Perhaps because he grew up in a film-related environment, Salman Khan had a keen intuition about the art: "I know what stories move the audience, I know what kind of story, emotion, or type of film they want to see."
When Salman got the script for "Little Lori's Monkey God Uncle", he smelled the potential of this movie. In order to star in the film, he directly pushed off other shooting in the same period. As he expected, the film was a huge success after its release, not only as the domestic box office champion in 2015, but also as the third highest grossing film in the history of Indian cinema.
Since the film, Salman Khan has been breaking the box office record in the history of Indian cinema. His first film as a leading role was True Love in My Heart, released in 1989, which was also the highest-grossing film of the year. The film tells a love story that transcends classes, preserving the story concept and tradition of singing and dancing in classic Bollywood movies.
Salman played the handsome, kind and infatuated brother in the film, which is also the typical image of the male protagonist in the Bollywood song and dance romance. Throughout the 90s, Salman's big-screen role basically continued this character, and he participated in dozens of Bollywood family romance films, which also shaped his identity as a popular idol.
After 2000, Bollywood began to incorporate elements of other commercial genres on the basis of traditional love songs and dances. It was also during this period that Salman Khan, who had experienced a brief career stagnation, jumped out of the pattern of idols in love movies and gradually transformed into an action star.
In 2009, Salman Khan took over the action movie Wanted, starring as a majet gang member. This anti-heroic character, like the protagonists of all Indian action blockbusters, has excellent skills and extraordinary intelligence, and after experiencing an adventure all the way, he finally punishes evil and promotes good, and also obtains the consummation of love.
"Wanted" became the indian box office champion that year, once again confirming Salman's commercial appeal. However, what really opened up his identity as an action superstar was the "Fearless Police Officer" released in 2010.
"Fearless Police Officer" achieved full success in word-of-mouth and box office, and became the box office champion in the history of Indian cinema at that time. The sequel released in 2012 also received a good response.
After "Intrepid Officer", Salman starred in films such as "Ready to Go", "Bodyguard", "Victory", "Stimulation", and "Operation Tiger", known as "India 007", which are all action blockbusters that also solidify his image as an action tough guy on the big screen.
Therefore, the mainland media, which has always liked to use code names, after giving Amir Khan the titles of "Indian AtangGe" and Shah Rukh Khan "Andy Lau of India", also gave Salman Khan a convenient and analogous name - Indian Jackie Chan.
With the popularity of "Three Fools Bollywood", Bollywood's participation and reference to social issues have become more and more prominent. Salman Khan has also starred in some realistic films, and "Little Lori's Monkey God Uncle" is the best and most influential of them.
The film tells the story of Salman playing the "monkey god" and helping a Pakistani mute woman return to her homeland to reunite with her parents. The film's discussion of ethnic contradictions between India and Pakistan, as well as religious beliefs, caste system and sexism in Indian society, has received great repercussions in India and even the world.
In fact, before "Uncle Monkey God", Salman had already dabbled in realistic themes. As early as 2001, he starred in the movie "Big Love Without Traces", which paid attention to the social problem of surrogacy, which is quite ahead of India and even the world.
From Salman Khan's 30-year career as an actor, it is not difficult to see that his role has always been relatively simple. These characters invariably run through the label of heroism, whether it is the extraordinary agent in "CodeName Tiger Operation" or the devout believer in "Little Lolita's Monkey God Uncle", they all adhere to the creed of "goodness".
Outside of the film, Salman Khan has a complex character full of contradictions. On the one hand, he is very egotistical, "regardless of others, as long as I like the script, I will shoot", but at the same time, he will be infinitely accommodating to the audience, "I will shoot the works that the audience wants to see... I will try to make people who don't like me change their minds."
In the eyes of the media, Salman's image is also multi-faceted. Sometimes he doesn't care about comments, being blunt and sharp in interviews, but sometimes he appears humble and friendly.
Salman Khan is still very popular among Indian audiences, and his identity is no longer limited to movie stars, but a national icon whose influence permeates many aspects of society.
Salman was the first Bollywood actor to show his figure in the film, and it can be said that he more or less changed the audience's aesthetic of Bollywood male stars.
Salman has always had strict standards for body shape, he insisted on fitness for 25 years, and until now he has also paid great attention to body management.
When filming "Life and Death Race 3", after each day's work, he would stay alone on the set, free up a few hours for exercise, and sometimes bring a fitness instructor to the set to help guide. Of course, on the one hand, this is due to his long-term fitness habits, on the other hand, it is also because of the needs of the role, after all, the audience's requirements for the figure of the action film actor are still very strict.
Salman Khan is well-known in Bollywood and is a mentor to many filmmakers. He set up his own film company, while shooting film projects, he unearthed many new actors and actresses, and also supported some potential behind-the-scenes workers.
The proceeds from the film were used by Salman Khan for charity. In fact, before the founding of the film company, he pioneered the creation of an NGO group called Being Human in 2007 to help poor areas in India solve health and education problems.
Later, he donated all his personal income from the filming of "Little Lori's Monkey God Uncle" to help the poor improve their lives. In the eyes of some, Salman Khan is like his image on the big screen, a hero-like existence.
Speaking of Salman Khan's new film "Sultan", he still portrays a positive image in this film. The film revolves around the wrestler Sultan, recording the highs and lows he experienced, as well as his path to bottoming out after losing everything.
From success, to blows, to re-emergence, The Sultan's story essentially follows the traditional narrative structure of Hollywood genre films. In the process of reversing adversity, such stories can often make people feel the spiritual core of detachment and super blood.
"Sudan" was actually released in India in 2016, and won the box office of that year, and the film has a 89% praise rate on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Indiewire website mentioned in the review that "Salman's film offers the most authentic performance since the film". In order to create this role, he is also quite desperate, and has made a lot of preparations before starting filming.
In Salman's view, "if you don't train you can't be like a wrestler, you have to fight in the arena, learn all the techniques, the moves, in order to make the movie plot real and natural."
So, at the age of 50, Salman began a two-month physical training, learning wrestling and fighting, and gained 10 kilograms for the authenticity of the character. In the end, the action scenes presented in the movie are basically his own battle.
Frankly speaking, the situation of the Sultan in the movie is somewhat similar to that of Salman in reality.
The life experience that was not smooth sailing and the repetition after the controversy made the lives of the two have a certain degree of overlap and intersection. Scroll.in website also mentioned in a short review on Rotten Tomatoes: "Compared to the characters themselves, "Sultan" is actually the story of the actors themselves. ”
Salman once said in an interview: "You can try my life for a day, people never know what my life is like." ”
Indeed, whether out of praise or doubt, all the labels that come with Salman Khan are, in a sense, merely public imaginations or presuppositions about him. Perhaps through this "Sultan", one can see a more real and special Salman.