When Salman Khan predicted his ‘Tiger Jodi’ with Katrina Kaif would go a long way: 10 years of Ek Tha Tiger

Salman Khan had an inkling in 2012 that his film Ek Tha Tiger would not just emerge as a blockbuster, but would go a long way, and do ‘some good work’. Indeed it did, as 2017 saw the release of Tiger Zinda Hai, which crossed Rs 350 crore at the box office and now the third Tiger is on the way. The action-packed franchise sees Salman as ‘Tiger’ an Indian spy, and his wife, Zoya, played Katrina. While the first film focussed on their love story flourishing despite being on the opposite sides of the border, the second film saw them rescuing hostages held a terror organisation in Iraq.
Speaking to NDTV in 2012, Salman had revealed why it took him 20 years to work with Yash Chopra. He answered, “The film is the right time and place, that’s how Tiger happened. My father worked with him for the longest time and the sons took some time. This Tiger jodi would take us a long way and do some really good work. Working with Adi is like working with my own brothers. Let’s see in the future what happens.”

However, at the time, there was a stir as tickets were sold at a premium. Salman had opened up about this, saying that even though it was out of their hands, he didn’t feel okay with it. “I don’t know what the solution to this is. I think this started off with Aamir Khan’s film, 3 Idiots, I didn’t think it was okay then, I don’t think it is okay now. All I can say is don’t badhao it. I don’t know what the funda is, and I don’t know how much I can interfere. I don’t think they’ll increase it so much.”
Katrina Kaif also revealed that at first she had difficulty with action sequences, but Salman advised her to approach it like choreography. “When they started showing fight sequences, I wondered how in the world is someone supposed to remember that, I got thrown off. Salman said approach it like choreography, so I did.” On how they did research for the film, Katrina related how Salman used to read on the internet every night about spies and the RAW. He interjected, “I got a fair idea, so I understood what to do and how to do, and got involved in that—how much to run, and how swift.”
Kabir Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger emerged as one of the biggest successes in Bollywood as it raked in around Rs 334 crore and is the 25th highest-grossing film of all time.