A person with a strong elite background hailing from an upmarket locality like Salt Lake in Kolkata WhatsApps his friend, "Dude, go and watch Sultan! Salman has set the screen on fire." And his Facebook status says he is watching the film again which he himself doesn't believe.
A civil engineer by profession who has never ever uttered the name of Salman Khan before comes to his thek (a place for chat in Bengali terms) and sings, Jag Suneya. And he's unstoppable. A woman, part of the corporate world while working out in the gymnasium plays the title song of Sultan over and over again.
A superstar till a year ago whose stardom never mattered to the classy ones has made that leap from masses to classes. Drop by a multiplex in Kolkata and you come across a modern day youth with a smartphone standing in the queue to get a ticket to watch Sultan.
What started with Bajrangi Bhaijaan last year, continues with Sultan and let's get it straight, a phenomenal expansion of the fan base of Salman is on the cards.
Rewind and a Salman Khan film never really appealed to the so-called middle and upper-middle classes. "He's brainless and stand nowhere near Aamir and Shah Rukh," said a retired bureaucrat a couple of years ago. He gave a damn to the unprecedented box-office success that Salman's films were achieving. The former civil servant's wife despite having a soft corner for that innocent smile that the Bad Boy of Bollywood is known to carry, never dared to praise the actor before her hubby.
But post Sultan, she breaks free. "There's something in him that makes him a megastar," she says much to the exasperation of her husband. Her brother-in-law, a resident of one of the plushest localities in Delhi comes to Kolkata and says, "The film is going to break all records."
Forget the statistics, if Salman Khan has anything to take home post Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Sultan, it's the respect he has earned from the stubborn sophisticated spectrum of the society. That's been his biggest victory. Or shall we say an underrated actor has finally come of age after spending 27 years in the industry?
What unfortunately Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam, Veergati and Tere Naam couldn't do to his career, Bajrangi... and Sultan have --- acknowledgement from critics and fans that this superstar from Bandra, Mumbai can act too.
Hopefully, there are many more accolades to come!
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