Bollywood actor Salman Khan has said the Indian media was defaming him by regularly portraying a negative off-screen image.

"There's a business section that wants to portray everything negatively so that they can sell magazines or get good top ratings on TV," Salman was quoted as saying in the BBC Asian Network's Gagan Grewal show Friday.

The 41-year-old actor has been charged with killing two protected antelope species in 1998. Again in April he was given a five-year jail term - currently under appeal - for a separate hunting incident. He is currently on bail while his appeal is being heard.

Salman has denied these wrongdoings, saying his conviction was wrong and the judge sentenced him only because he wanted to make an example out of him.

"Apparently the judge said that openly," Khan told the anchor.

"They wanted to set an example out of me... Who knew the black buck? I mean today because of me, people know there's an endangered species of deer called black buck, well it's actually an antelope."

He is also facing trial in a hit-and-run case in Mumbai. One person was killed and three were injured when Salman allegedly drove into a group of pavement dwellers in 2002.