On Salman Khan’s insistence, Salman Khan in Kashmir

Srinagar: Bollywood superstar Salman Khan known for his style, muscle, controversies and most of all philanthropy has reached out to Kashmir.

Salman’s ‘Being Human’ clothing line has come up with its maiden store in the valley. The Bhai of B-town would have inaugurated the store himself hadn’t COVID-19 spoiled the plans.

The state-of-the-art store is located at ‘Citywalk Kashmir’, the newly built 35,000 square feet shopping centre on Maulana Azad Road in Srinagar.

The clothing line is part of the ‘Being Human Foundation’, a Mumbai-based charity, founded by Salman Khan in 2007, that provides education and healthcare services for the underprivileged in India.

The charity accepts direct donations, but it is primarily funded by 8 to 10% share of the sales of the clothing line.

The franchisee has been given to Srinagar based young businessman, Adil Ahmad Zaz.

Adil was attracted towards ‘Being Human’ in 2017 and decided to introduce it in Kashmir but getting the approval wasn’t easy.

“In 2017, I read about ‘Being Human’ and decided this was the brand that I will introduce here as it is charity-based,” he told The Kashmir Monitor.

It took Adil over a year to get the approval after initial hiccups.

“In 2017, when I first tried to get the franchisee, Arpita Khan, Salman Khan’s sister had shown some reluctance to opening of a store in Kashmir considering the situation here.  Later, when Salman Khan came to know about it, he insisted that there should be a store in Srinagar saying he had been to Kashmir and received lot of love from the people there,” Adil said.

He eventually got the ‘Being Human’ approval in 2018 and had decided to start operations by 2019.

Adil, however, had to push it further considering the situation in the valley post August 2019.

“Salman himself had plans to come to Srinagar and inaugurate the store but due to COVID-19 he couldn’t,” he said.

Among Salman’s famous trysts with Kashmir has been the 2015 movie ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’, parts of which were shot in the valley, with Salman even donning traditional Kashmiri pheran in some of the scenes.

The 2019 movie ‘Notebook’ produced by Salman Khan was also entirely shot in Kashmir.