Salman Khan and Kabir Khan have earned their place as one of Bollywood’s most successful actor-director duos, delivering massive hits like Ek Tha Tiger and Bajrangi Bhaijaan. However, their professional journey wasn’t always as smooth as their on-screen successes suggest. In a recent interview, Kabir Khan offered a candid glimpse into the creative friction that occurred during the making of Ek Tha Tiger, a film that marked a turning point in both of their careers.
Kabir recalled how the idea for Ek Tha Tiger first came from Aditya Chopra, who encouraged him to take on the challenge of directing a film with a major star like Salman. “He (Aditya) told me, ‘Kabir, making a film with a big star is a different beast and a different kind of film altogether, and I feel that you can now step up to that.’ Then we wrote Tiger. I never consciously thought that I would have to do something in a specific way just because Salman was in it,” Kabir explained.
He further shared how working with a megastar like Salman naturally introduced elements of fan service into the storytelling, even if unintentionally. “It’s just that the storyteller in me wanted to do certain things because I knew he could carry it off. In a certain sense, fan service also starts to come in when you have a star in front of you and you know you can do all these things with someone of Salman’s calibre.”
Reflecting on the experience, Kabir admitted that Ek Tha Tiger was not entirely under his creative control. At that point, it was only his third film, and he found himself navigating a complex dynamic—Salman was at the height of his stardom, and the film was his first collaboration with Yash Raj Films. “It was also his first time working with Yash Raj Films, and it was a new territory for him — action, and we were trying to make it international, so a lot of churning happened,” Kabir noted.
Their collaboration wasn’t without its bumps. Kabir Khan described the creative push and pull that defined their process. “Sometimes I had to pull him down and stop him from going overboard; sometimes he was pulling me up to do more. Some discussions were amicable, and some left one of us sulking. Even though Tiger was not completely in my control, I feel that something interesting happened between the two of us — the energy that formed between us.”
Despite the friction, the mutual respect between them prevailed, paving the way for their next collaboration, the widely acclaimed Bajrangi Bhaijaan. According to Kabir, that strong professional bond helped smooth over their creative differences and resulted in one of Bollywood’s most cherished partnerships.
