Cold. Calculating. Manipulative. Such adjectives have hounded
Ash ever since she took her first step in Bollywood. Why? The answer lies in
the unknown, but what is pretty clear is that during the same perlod (that is,
when she began) people who really mattered'ahowered her with praises even when
she did not have a hit to speak about.
A director like Subhash Ghai had said assertively: "Ash
belongs to an educated, civilised and cultured family. It reflects in the way
she conducts herself." Director Mansoor Khan affirmed around the same
time: "She is not a shallow person, and is, instead, a very sensible,
mature and understanding human being."
Her friendship with model Ranjeev Mulchandani was a hot
topic of discussion when she had walked into the industry, and that also led to
a much-publicised friction with senior actress Manisha Koirala whose boyfriend
Ranjeev used to be. When Ranjeev and Manisha broke up, all hell broke loose
when Manisha hit out against Ash in the most unpleasant manner.
Ash denied Manisha's claims that something was going on
between Ranjeev and herself but stood firmly by her association with her model-friend:
"Ranjeev and I are still friends. We were close and will always be. There
was no reason for us to stop speaking just because of somebody's over-reactive
and wild imagination. Ranjeev cleared all the lies himself because he knew that
there was no truth to Manisha's made up nonsensical story.... There was never
any thing between Ranjeev and me. Suddenly, one day, Manisha decided that she
had found my letters when there were never any.... I was very hurt because she
made up the whole story and in the bargain, it led to a lot of cheap
publicity."
Publicity: that was the operative word. For, no matter what
Ash did, it could never ever stay away from the glare of spotlight. Much later,
when she was seen with the 'hot male' Sabeer Bhatia (the mind behind hotmail.com),
there were wild speculations that she would marry him. In an interview quoted
in the portal Indiainfo.com, Ash reacted by saying: "It is so ridiculous.
Being under the media gaze all the time, meeting people socially and
professionally, such rumours and speculations are bound to erupt."
That such stories were an inextricable part of her life was
something she suggested through her statement most emphatically, and she also
confirmed: "I heard about my supposed marriage plans with Sabeer Bhatia
during an outdoor shooting. With so many marriages happening in the film
industry, they just went on and on about a marriage that was never even
discussed."
That Ash wasn't interested was probably true. But India's
very own Mr. Moneybags Sabeer did admit to his liking for the woman in no
uncertain terms in Hi Blitz. I an interview, he recollected that he had first
met Ash a the Miss India beauty contest in 1999 in which both o them were
judges. Said he: "We spent the entire da together judging the contestants
and at the end of the da I took her number. I found her to be very interesting
an beautiful. We chatted a few times over the phone and the when her telephone
number changed her mother refuse to give me her new number! She told me to stop
calling and that was the end of it! I do not know if it was her mum's decision
or if Ash did not want me to call her because I heard she had a boyfriend. I
stopped pursuing her at that point of time. But there was nothing that happened
between the two of us for me to be heartbroken."
Sabeer's interest in Ash did not yield any results, but
actor Salman Khan's smoldering passion for her did. The twosome came together,
became Bollywood's most enviably attractive lovebirds, and this relationship
certainly didn't owe itself to speculations but was rooted in ground reality.
The pair was ideal for masala literature, no two ways about it. For the
journos, it was the right time to hunt for stories, each of which was to be as
turbulent and momentous as the other.
Salman, one of the most handsome men in the country, had a
reputation with women when he came across Ash. Shaheen, Sangeeta Bijlani, Somy
Ali: Salman's relationships with women whose names began with the alphabet S
were talked about when they lasted and even after they had withered away. But
no woman who Salman had been close to had been talked about at such length by
the media for an obvious reason.
None of them were as big as Ash, who was the quintessential
beauty who had mesmerised half the industry when she had decided to join it.
The couple looked beautiful together, although the one suspicion that everyone had
was: knowing Salman's track record, will it last ? That it did not we all know
very clearly. But why exactly the split happened nobody seems to be sure of.
At the very outset of Ash's cinematic career way back - in
1997, there were stories that Salman had walked out of a Mansoor Khan venture
because he was supposed to play her brother in the film. He .insisted on
playing the lead opposite her, and had even told the producer Ratan Jain:
"Ussey meri bahen mat banao, yaar. (Please don't make her play my sister,
buddy)."
When questioned if that was true, Ash had reacted with:
"Salman really did that? It is definitely a compliment. I am sure his
decision to opt out of the film was totally professional because, after all, we
are playing characters in the film. It has nothing' to do with what we do off
screen. If someone is being vocal about his feelings what can I say? But by and
large the men around don't make their feelings all that apparent. I have never
had a discomfiting experience in the film industry. It's never been as if
someone's gaze has made me shift in my seat. The atmosphere has always been
congenial. So we have probably got a good bunch of heroes."
Good bunch? Whatever the truth might be, what cannot be
questioned is that even during the most difficult phase of her career when she
hadn't had a single hit and people : were beginning to question her capability
as an actress, Salman was so besotted with Ash that he made sure she ; got the
right kind of movies that could showcase her potential as an actress and help
her progress in her professional life. He spoke about her to producers and
directors he knew, and who knew him well, and even went to the extent of recommending
her for films he wasn't ' starring in. During the beginning of her career, and
particularly because she had missed out on acting in hits while choosing to
sign films that had bombed at the box office, Salman's act of putting in a word
or two did help her for sure.
But it was left to Bhansali to bring the lovers together.
Not that the director did so consciously. The road of coincidence led to a
junction where Salman and she met, and they were cast together in Hum Dil De
Chuke Sanam. During this time, people around Salman were ready to vouch for the
fact that he, despite having a girlfriend for seven years in Somy Ali, had been
thoroughly obsessed with the mind-boggling beauty ever since he had seen her
for the first time. He set forth his charms the way only he can, but Ash did
not succumb instantly. In fact; far from it. But Salman stuck to his guns, and
so passionately that Somy who had been with him for such a long time realised that
her relationship with the man could lead to nothing and left the nation's
shores for the United States.
The seeds of the relationship were sown when Ash started
visiting Salman's house, and often on the pretext of working out lines and
scenes from HDDCS. Somy at that time was living with Salman, and she did not
have the faintest idea of a relationship that was all set to bloom behind her
back. When Ash had fallen for Salman, there would be times when she would come
to the house and ask Somy where he was. If the actor happened to be in the gym,
she would go there where they spent hours together. Not that Somy did not ask
Salman about Ash. She did but, whenever that happened, he used to laugh it off
by saying that she was just a costar who needed his help and cooperation.
But things could have not been kept under the carpet for too
long and, when the reality unfolded, Somy knew she had to move on no matter how
much she loved him. She did not have a choice really. She was a witness to the
fact that Salman was genuinely in love with Ash, and that the relationship
between the two was intensifying with each passing day. Somy left India's
shores, and Ash started visiting Salman's house almost daily. She would spend.
time with his parents, she was best friends with his sisters, there was no
family function in which she was not present.
All of Salman's friends used to refer to her as bhabhi
(brother's wife), and one day it, really did seem that the Dday had arrived.
Salman called all his friends to his house saying that he had something
"very important to announce." The friends assumed that the twosome
who were in love were getting married, and every one assembled in Salman's
house in the evening. The guests waited and waited, biryani and drinks were
served, but there was no sign of either Salman or Ash. The last among the guests
left in the wee hours of the morning, and neither of the two had arrived by
then. It was quite certain that one of them had developed cold feet, and it
wasn't tough to guess who it should have been.
Briefly, Somy was out of Salman's life yet his relationship
with Ash did not seem to be progressing in that predictable direction which
leads to marriage. Salman on his part had sworn. that he would not look back at
Somy again, and he had followed that up with an interesting second step. He had
left his father's flat and shifted to his own: in other words, moved to the
ground floor of the same building. There was a certain ambiguity that
accompanied Ash's descriptions of her relationship with Salman for a long time,
but it was pretty clear that she wasn't thinking marriage yet was definitely
serious about the relationship despite his colorful past.
One reason given very often for Ash's inability to commit
herself is that she belongs to a closely knit Bunt family, and perhaps the very
thought of marrying Salman who hails from a different religion might have been
bothering her. In fact, it is likely she might have thought that marriage was
simply impossible. Why she could not go ahead could have also been because of
how she felt about her parents: "I will never do any thing that will hurt
my parents. My conscience, my sense of right and wrong, the feeling of guilt on
doing something wrong always guides me. That is why I maintain that good
breeding includes a sense of spirituality as well."
But the reputation of Salman did not deter her once she had
made a decision. She could be seen with her man on both private and public
occasions. Passionate when in love and violent once in a while: Salman's ways
with his ladies had been a matter of public consumption for ages. You could
like him. You could hate him. But you simply could not ignore this guy who, as
a writer had said most interestingly, was the last of his kind in the industry.
That seems even more true now that the other Casanova Akshay Kumar has settled
down to a nice and stable family life with Twinkle Khanna.
Not that Ash's parents were thrilled with the fact of their
daughter's romance with none other than Salman. The truth was far from it, and
they had made it clear to their loving daughter that they did not want her to
go ahead with the relationship. But Ash, now very much in love and
manifesting'a rebellious streak in her personality for the first time, went
ahead and started living all by herself in an apartment in Brook Hill Towers in
Mumbai's Lokhandwala.
The relationship had its highs and lows as all do, the
latter coming on occasions such as the one during which Salman promised his pal
and filmmaker Bubby Kent that he would get her for his movie. Ash read the
script, did not like it, and subsequently refused to do the film. That is said
to have put off Salman, leading to a separation between the two that lasted for
a week. But when that ; short period ended, the twosome were together again.
Before Salman, Ash had been linked with her costars such as Akshaye Khanna and
Suniel Shetty. Given the kind of attention she got from day one, such link-ups,
stories and half-truths were inevitable. But it was after Salman entered her
life that the media just couldn't shift the r limelight anywhere else. It asked
her questions, questions, more questions. Was she married to Salman? "I am
not married to Salman. But I guess I can only speak for today, now and present.
And this I can categorically say that I am not married to Salman Khan."
Some reports even suggested that she was doing up his house
according to Vastusashtra, and it wasn't tough to figure out that the source of
the story was the awareness that she was planning to become an architect at one
point ` of time in her life. To this question, she had responded with:
"Did you say that I am doing up his house according to Vastushashtra?
Well, I gave up architecture the day I joined movies. I don't have the time
right now to even do up my own flat, so where is the question of doing up
Salman's flat?"
There was a certain discretion with which Ash dealt with
questions relating to Salman, but things weren't destined to be hunky-dory all
through. Forget hunky-dory, a hugely publicised act which shook the Rai
household and captured the media's attention totally was when an inebriated
Salman came to Ash's apartment well after midnight and started banging on her
door because he wanted to come inside.
Ash did not allow him to do so, following which Salman
threatened to go to the terrace, climb down two floors and enter her apartment
on the 17th floor. To say that the residents were disturbed would be a polite
understatement, but then who could have stopped an angry Salman? The guy kept
on banging the door till three in the morning, his hands started bleeding, and
Ash finally had to give in and allow him to come inside at six in the morning.
Salman walked in and left her place as late as eight in the evening that day.
Why did Salman go berserk that day? Countless stories did
the rounds, but what seemed really probable was that Salman wanted to get a
fixed date of marriage from Ash but the latter, since really focused on her
career which was just about beginning to shape up, refused to enter into a
marital commitment. When Ash gave her verdict, Salman just couldn't handle it and
ended up creating a huge farce in Lokhandwala that became the most publicised
story in town. The other speculation that was circulating during that period
was that Salman, who is known to be possessive about his girlfriends, went to
Lokhandwala and wanted to see Ash. Now, Ash is known to be a light sleeper, so
when she did not open the door, Salman suspected she was with a guy inside and
wanted to break into the apartment. For the family of Ash, it was tribulation
time. Their daughter was in the news, and for the wrong reasons. Her father, a
thorough gentleman, managed to manifest dignified composure that failed to
camouflage the torment within "Our personal life is very restless right
now. We are suffering a domestic crisis at the moment. We don't have any peace
of mind and it won't be possible to talk about anything right now. Maybe later,
when we have overcome all this, we'll be able to talk about it." Words
uttered in a tone that indicated the trauma of pain, as also the inability to
say any thing at all because the man was burdened with the reality of
helplessness that accrues when the epicentre of any dilemma is the most loved
one, a beautiful child that's one's own.
When Salman is one of the protagonists in a romance, a
deluge of stories is the most obvious repercussion. The same happened in the
Salman-Ash relationship in which more was to follow. What became a newsworthy
item was when there was an Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate investigation
in Salman's house, it was said that the officials had bumped into documents
that belonged to his ex-flame Somy. Ash questioned Salman about whether or not
the two were in touch and, when the former did not refute it, the relationship
started cracking up. But was that the real reason? Sources said no, and asserted
that Salman was so much in love with Ash that he did not even think of Somy
when the relationship was sailing smoothly.
What, then, were the real issues that had started to bother
Salman? First, he had started feeling that she never ever admitted to the
relationship they shared although she had practically become a part of the Khan
family. The actor had also started having doubts about whether or not Ash, like
some others, believed that his presence in her life was having an adverse
impact on her career.
Sources also affirmed that Salman was beginning to see signs
that Ash needed him no longer, and that is when Somy called him up because her
dad was about to undergo a serious operation. Although the parents of Somy had
never liked Salman, which was one of the key reasons why she had decided to
live with him in his house, the actor decided to forget the past and help her
family when they truly needed his support.
Supporters of the actor backed him whole-heartedly, and many
of them affirmed that he got crucified only because he kept mum about his
problems and Ash's failings. During this time, a friend of his said:
"After all those reports appeared in the press about Salman making a scene
outside Ash's house, she did a lot of explaining in the media. But she always
took up her own cause - she never spoke on behalf of both of them. And this
despite knowing that Salman doesn't talk to the media and that she was the only
one who could have got her point across as well. But she never did that. Salman
was very hurt, though he never made an issue out of it."
Where Salman erred was that he did not speak a word about
his friendly reunion with Somy. When he went to the US, he went to meet her but
did not tell Ash a thing. So, when the reality dawned on Ash, it wasn't easy to
fathom at all. She decided to call it a day, although Salman's father Salim
Khan revealed a certain optimism about the relationship's future when he said:
"Every couple have their usual tiffs. It's a part and parcel of every
relationship."
Salim Khan was proved right since, when the actor got an
appropriate moment, he made the most of it and talked it out with Ash with his
father for company. He explained that he had been in touch with Somy, but that
was since he needed to help her out in a critical moment which he did after
taking his father's permission.
Ash was convinced, and she was back in his life that
disappointed her family most understandably because they were heaving a
collective sigh of relief when the twosome had split. But then, 5alman and Ash
were back together. In the year 2001, in the month of June in a Mumbai
restaurant, they were seen spending a quiet evening. Ash even went and spent an
entire day on the sets of a Baba Films starrer that had Salman as the hero, and
that too when the spotlight was on the couple. The industry accepted them as
reunited lovebirds once more, waiting for a tomorrow in which something new
would take them by surprise.
Things were not destined to remain pleasant and peaceful for
too long, since the bug of uncertainty continue to bother Salman who created a
scene on the sets of Rohan Sippy's Kuch Na Kaho. He drove inside the sets,,
banged her car and also the van belonging to her costar Abhishek ; Bachchan. It was quite a scene and, yes,
hugely publicised by the media which had more Salman-Ash stories than it could
possibly handle by then.
And, why not ? This was not the first time that Salman had
done something demonstrative which had colonised the limelight. Sometime before
the Kuch Na Kaho episode happened, Salman had bumped into director Subhash Ghai
at a party hosted by friends Aarti and Kailash Sixrendranath. Something led to
an altercation between the two and Salman backed off. Ghai, who was in high
spirits, is said to have followed him to the loo where he made some unpleasant
remarks about Ash. On hearing this, Salman lost his cool and bombarded him with
a few punches. The next day, his father Salim Khan had to intervene and ensure
a patch-up between the two.
That was not all. Things started to go from bad to worse
when Salman barged into the sets of Shah Rukh Khan's home production, Chalte
Chalte in Malshet. He had an argument with Shah, Rukh with whom Ash was all set
to become a hot pair, and actually held the star by the collar and accused him of
having an affair with Ash. SRK replaced Ash with Rani Mukherjee, and, the
actress expressed her disappointment clearly: "I am disillusioned with my
friend Shah Rukh."
But SRK had his problems, and they had every thing to do
with the fact that he was also a producer who happened to be a partner of a
filmmaking company that had incurred losses after making Phir Bhi Dil Hai
Hlndustani and Asoka. Both of the films were experimental ventures, and they
had bombed pretty badly. Chalte Chalte, a simple story of a married couple
being directed by Aziz Mirza, was the company's attempt to make a comeback.
That explained why SRK was in no position to afford unprofessional delays and
consequential expenses.
In an interview to Filmfare, he articulated his predicament
clearly as he described the reason leading to the ouster of Ash: "As a
friend, co-actor, someone's who extremely fond of her, I'm really sad that
happened. On a personal level, I am really sorry and I would apologise to her
and keep the apology personal, not make it public. But I stand by my decision
as a producer and if I'm not mistaken I've apologized to her as a producer. It
was a collective decision taken on behalf of the company."
He went on to add with characteristic candour: "We're
in debt, we're making a movie after two pictures that haven't done well and we
couldn't have this sort of thing happening. In 11 years and 40 films, I've done
nothing to ever give anybody professional stress. At this age and stage I don't
expect it to happen to me. I have gone to the floor with a broken arm. I have
lost close friends, been unhappy, but gone and danced on the sets. I will jump
from the 40th floor with a broken spinal cord if need be. I'm not the kind who
reports on the sets at 9 am and some of my co-actors and colleagues might have
waited for me. But overall, I've never stepped on anybody's toes because of my
personal problems. Personally, Aishwarya's a lovely person, I don't have an
iota of a complaint against her. I don't think anybody has. I'm truly sorry as
a friend and I've said so to her-at the Filmfare Awards night, I think. But I
can understand her anger, I can understand a relationship being spoilt."
If the much-publicised Chalte Chalte incident did not help
matters, the notorious Landcruiser accident revealed one dramatic angle of a
tragic romantic drama. Salman, who it was widely said had taken to drinking
because he loved his ladylove madly who was distant and cold, was alleged to
have rammed the vehicle into the walls of a bakery in Mumbai which led to a
death of one person and a date with the prison for the actor. This news item
redefined the newsmaking capabilities of even Salman - who had been in trouble
with the law earlier as well because of the alleged killing of black bucks, a
protected species, some time ago in the state of Rajasthan.
While Salman was rotting in jail because of the accident
which was page one news nationwide, countless people went to visit him, and
this included most who believed that the guy just happened to be inside the vehicle
that had caused the accident. But not Ash, who had distanced herself to such an
extent that she refused to contemplate a journey to the jail even as a gesture
of sympathy for her former lover. The story had ended, if not for Salman, certainly
for Ash who had failed to reconcile with the actor's ways.
How wrong was Salman, and how right was Ash? The evaluation
is entirely dependent on which of the two the reader is fonder of. On the
surface level, Salman was guilty of being demonstrative which is so him. But he
did not speak with the media about the relationship that Ash did, and thus
built a web of enigma that concealed his side of the story.
Ash was vocal, which was evident when she, in an interview
to the Bombay Times, told the world what Salman had supposedly done:
"After we broke up, he would call me and talk rubbish; he also suspected
me of having affairs with my costars. I was linked up with everyone, from
Abhishek Bachchan to Shah Rukh Khan. There were times when Salman got physical
with me, luckily without leaving any marks. And I would go to work as if
nothing had happened."
Far more scathing in her attack was Ash when she came up
with a press release that stated facts which should have perhaps not been
spoken about at all: "I have endured his alcoholism and misbehaviour, and
I have been at the receiving end of his abuses - verbal, physical and
emotional, infidelity and indignity." A lot of stories had been floating
around about Ash not being in the clear as it superficially seemed, and that it
was she who had called Salman to the sets of the SRK film which had annoyed the
latter. The press release, however, directly emphasised that the relationship
had ended long ago: "Like any selfrespecting woman, I ended my
relationship with him (Salman) almost two years ago. I am making this
clarification because for a very long time now, they have time and again tried
to wreck my mental peace and sanity, both personally and professionally."
But, Salman. No matter what he might have done, what must
be.said is that he did not hit out against the woman in the media and make his
personal life a matter for public consumption. In an interview to the Mid Day,
he was asked. about his reaction to Ash's opening up to the media. His
response? "She must have been upset. She isn't going to recite poetry when
she is upset. People have different reactions. I have no problems with her at
all."
Did he sometimes feel that she was leading him on, the
interviewer quizzed him further. "No. There is nothing wrong with Ash. I think
she is a very nice person." Only this much and nothing more: his stance
was pretty clear, and one had to respect him for that no matter what might have
happened in the two some's personal lives.
Ash, meanwhile, refused to act in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's
forthcoming film Bajirao Mastani that stars Salman. "For the sake of my
well-being, my sanity, my dignity and the self-respect of my family - enough! I
will not work with Mr Salman Khan. The Salman chapter was a nightmare in my
life and I am thankful to God that is over." By taking such a huge
decision - that of not acting in a project of a director who had made her, her
- she had made her priorities clear. That is, she could let go of any thing to
keep away from the man she once loved.
A new chapter had begun, her friendship with actor Vivek
Oberoi, and what the latter claimed just seemed to endorse Ash's assertion that
Salman was in the wrong. In April 2003, there was a fresh furore when Vivek
alleged that Salman had called him up as many as 41 times in a single night,
and accused him of having affairs with everyone right from Ash to Somy Ali and
even threatened to kill him. Reacting to the episode, Vivek said: "It is
time , someone took a stand against his super brat behaviour. We cannot have people
who go on abusing people, running over sleeping citizens, beating women and
claim to do it under the influence of some emotional problem."
Back to Salman. In the same interview to Mid Day in which he
defended Ash's reaction, he was asked whether or not he had patched up with
Vivek. Salman's answer: "I don't know the guy.... Listen, you have asked
your questions, now you can write what the hell you want to write, and I think
you should leave now." On being suggested that all these questions were being
asked to him so that he could clarify his side of the story, he said most
matter-of-factly: "Why should I open up to you? Are you my dad, my mum, my
best buddy?"
Not opening up, a near-absence of desire for calling a spade
a spade in front of people he barely knew: perhaps, that is why. the complete
truth about the relationship can never ever be revealed. What will be talked
about are episodes such as Salman's visits to a couple of sets; his drunken
scene outside Ash's flat, Ash's press release which branded him as the villain
of the piece, as the architect of chaos, as a devil who had destroyed the life
of his loved one with acts of unforgivable brutality.
But the relationship the twosome shared, it can be said
quite emphatically, shall continue to be a mystery. Why? Because Salman's acts
might have been visible, and at times abominable, but nobody can tell for sure
what drove him to such a state of desperation. Sorry, just one person can do
it, and he refuses to talk.
