Director Satish Kaushik’s Tere Naam hit theaters August 15, 2003, and became a surprise phenomenon. Salman Khan’s long-haired jilted lover, Radhe, was hailed as one of his best, and marked his return to solid form.
However, not many would know that Salman was not in favour of the film’s message. The Bollywood superstar had even expressed his reservations about the script during the filming.
During an Instagram live with BollywoodLife, Satish revealed that Salman had told him that they were sending out “a wrong” message to the youth as the latter didn’t subscribe to the politics of the film.
The film found itself back into the limelight last year, after several people pointed out that its underlying theme was very much similar to Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Kabir Singh, which starred Shahid Kapoor as a self-destructive lover.
Upon its release, Kabir Singh had received a huge backlash, with many critics calling it “extremely misogynistic, problematic and sexist.” Many also argued that the film could encourage misplaced sympathy at best, and violence at worst.
Today in the midst of a collective cultural awakening of sorts– fuelled by fierce criticism, would Tere Naam, one of Satish’s biggest hits and among Salman’s most iconic films, have been received differently?
“Yes, there are quite a few similarities between Tere Naam and Kabir Singh, especially the way, the hero pursues the girl and some other aspects,” Satish explained, before adding, “In fact, you wouldn’t believe that while shooting the movie, Salman had told me that it would work with the audience, but we’re sending a wrong message to the youth.
“This isn’t the kind of character we should show to the youth as they could get wrongly influenced by it. Salman has always been been very conscious that way in what he shows to his fans on screen. As a viewers and filmmaker though, I believe that all kinds of characters, positive, negative and those with grey shades should be shows in cinema, but it’s necessary to not show negative or grey characters winning in the end, like in Tere Naam,” Satish told BollywoodLife.