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Reply to "Taking a guided Bollywood tour of Mumbai"

Amazingly, Khan once slept rough on the beach, metres from where he now lives. He was determined to make it as an actor, and told his friends that when he made it in Bollywood, he’d buy a house overlooking the patch of sand where he’d once slept. And that’s exactly what he did.

Today he’s a millionaire, thanks to roles in films like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. It was released in 1995, and it’s still the most popular film at many of Mumbai’s cinemas.

Huge, dirty walls protect his sprawling mansion from prying eyes, but his security appears somewhat lax.

The entrance is framed by a ramshackle wooden shed. I poke my head inside and spot a seminaked local (definitely not Khan) dozing on a bench while a flea-bitten dog snoozes nearby.

Just as surprising is the nearby home of Salman Khan, an actor worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

“He lives in those flats with his mum and sister,” explains Pawar, pointing to an apartment block. I’m pretty sure he’s got more than enough money to move into a place of his own, but as a single man, it’s apparently not the done thing. “He’s unmarried, so he still lives at home,” explains Pawar.

Our next stop is the house of Aamir Khan, known for his dedication to his craft.

One of the films he’s most famous for is Dangal, although it’s not his acting skills which stole the limelight. Khan played a wrestler, and had to put on a huge amount of weight for the role, which portrays his character at various stages of his life.

Khan decided to film the later scenes first since these required him to gain an enormous amount of weight.

He knew that the scenes in which he played a lithe, muscled wrestler would be an added impetus to lose the weight he had piled on.

FM
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