A touch that was never part of the scene reportedly prompted Sanjay Leela Bhansali to lose his patience with Salman Khan on the set of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Actor Smita Jayakar has recalled how the filmmaker reprimanded Salman for touching Aishwarya Rai during the filming of a song sequence.
Jayakar, who played Aishwarya’s mother in the 1999 film, shared the anecdote during a recent appearance on Siddharth Kannan’s show.
According to NDTV, Jayakar was recalling the shoot of ‘Aankhon Ki Gustakhiyan’ when she described Salman walking around a table and touching Aishwarya’s arm, despite the scene requiring him to keep his distance.
“Then Sanjay shouted at him, ‘Salman, why did you touch her?’ He had to stand and watch her. She had to watch him only,” Jayakar said.
The recollection has brought fresh attention to the film, whose lead actors, Salman and Aishwarya, were once in a relationship. Their past continues to draw public interest, although Aishwarya has made it clear that she prefers not to revisit it publicly.
In a 2012 interview with Simi Garewal, Aishwarya was asked whether she could look back on the relationship objectively. She said she had moved on and wanted to leave that chapter behind.
“I’ve exorcised my demons. It’s a thing of the past. It needs to be left right there,” she said.
When Garewal asked why she avoided discussing the relationship if it was firmly in the past, Aishwarya explained that her silence was also about protecting the people close to her.
“I chose not to talk about it because I am not a soloist. I am not a person who lives my life on an ‘I, me, myself’ basis. With me comes my family, my loved ones, people I love and care for very dearly. So there’s an obvious wall. I don’t deny it,” she said.
