BollyParty

It’s a good thing that Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t planning to return to Hollywood as Conan the Barbarian. He might not like the fact that Salman Khan has stolen a march over him in his forthcoming film — Vijay Giliani’s Veer.

Sallu, like Arnie in the Conan series, plays a sword-wielding, horse-riding gladiator in Veer with wild, long hair. It’s a new look the actor is experimenting with after playing the rustic and turbaned Sikh in his last film. Interestingly, Salman’s played a wig-and-costume warrior before in Gilani’s Suryavanshi opposite Karisma Kapoor. But this time, the role apart, Salman is also involved in the script writing of this big budget film.

“I wrote this script while working on Baaghi. But, it wasn’t feasible to make it then because of its vast canvas. Now things have changed, production values have gone up and technically we are so much superior,” Salman told BT.

His character in Veer that is being shot with a new actress in Rajasthan and London, is that of a fighter who dies to honour his word. “Like me, I am a Pathan, and I live by what I say,” added the actor. Both Gilani and he zeroed in on Anil Sharma, who directed the successful Gadar, to work on their project.

Salman doesn’t rule out writing in the future. “I wanted to be a director when I started out. But I guess I was meant to be an actor. I didn’t think I was good looking, but people felt that my eyes were very expressive,” he said. He still doesn’t rule out direction in the future, now that he’s expressed himself as a writer (and, also a painter). “It was a keen desire then,” he admitted.