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Salman Khan emerges victorious
The actor beat professional jockeys to win a 600 metres exhibition race

It was almost a Bollywood-like photo-finish at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse on Sunday afternoon as Salman Khan, riding the stallion Wild Rose, fought off a stiff challenge from professional jockeys Mallesh Nareddu, YS Srinath and B Prakash and two amateurs, to win a 600 metres exhibition race at the Hello! Million.

It was a promotion event for his Friday release Veer (produced by Vijay Gallani for Eros International Media Ltd), in which the Bollywood hunk plays a swashbuckling, horse-riding warrior, but Salman threw himself into preparation days before the race.

He is a trained rider, in case you don’t know, and among his close buddies are several professional jockeys.

With the entire Khan-daan sitting in the Members’ Enclosure of the Turf Club and cheering him lustily, Salman took the finish like a pro, glancing over his shoulder triumphantly at the field a short head behind. He was riding with broken stirrups. But that kind of victory in the face of daunting circumstances, you could have expected from the action hero.

Salman said, “I was nervous, but I won because of God’s grace, and I’m happy about that. There was a slight moment of panic when my stirrups broke… but then; ultimately, it was all good.” The competing jockeys thought he was fantastic in the saddle, the Turf Club members mobbed the actor, and the Mahalaxmi Racecourse enjoyed its day in the sun.

It’s been quite a while since Ek Chaalis Ki Last Local – starring Abhay Deol and Neha Dhupia – released but it’s a film that made Pakistani band Call a cross-border hit and Neha Dhupia stills remembers the experience of shooting the video of ‘Laaree Chootee’ with fondness. “It was great shooting with the guys,” she spoke to Instep at India Couture Week in Mumbai recently, “and since then I’ve been saying that the best music is made in Pakistan and the best looking men are also from Pakistan.”

That is quite a compliment to Call, a band of boys who have not been able to match the popularity achieved with ‘Laaree Chootee’ ever since. But Pakistani music really has become a household sensation in India, though because of the consistent tension between both countries, that appreciation mostly remains underground. The kind of attention that Jermaine Jackson – who was in Mumbai shooting with Adnan Sami Khan during couture week – got in the local Indian media is what Pakistani musicians should be getting too. But while relations between India and Pakistan put restrains and limitations on cross cultural exchanges, it is refreshing for an Indian actress to come out and appreciate a Pakistani band so sincerely. And until things do get better, fans of Pakistani music in India will continue asking their friends to bring them CDs of Abida Parveen, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Iqbal Bano, Nusrat Fateh Ali and even Atif Aslam, who has performed on the soundtrack of Ranbir Kapoor’s Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani.

They say art has no boundaries but in the real world we live in, it unfortunately does.

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