The infamous black-buck incident that occurred in the middle of the shooting in Jodpur in 1999 ripped a hole in the friendship that took 10 years to mend.
Recalling the incident a close friend of the Barjatya family said, `Salman and Sooraj were so close they had begun to resemble one another. The way in which Salman spoke, walked, looked at the camera and smiled in Maine Pyar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hain Koun and Hum Saath Saath Hain was exactly from Sooraj. They were like Siamese twins.
When on the sets, Salman knew what Sooraj wanted him to do even before it was spelt out.Of course there was a brat within Salman's personality that Sooraj could never come to terms with. Sooraj's decorous personality couldn't cope with Salman's rebellious streak.`
It was the brattines that finally did the Salman-Sooraj dosti in.
Says the family friend, `Vegeteranism was, and remains, a big issue in the Barjatya family. No one has ever touched any non-vegetarian food for three generations.And that remains.I'll give you an example. When Abhishek Bachchan was shooting for Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon in Europe, he was tired of the vegetarian food being served day in and out. Abhishek decided he had enough. He went out and bought chicken , cooked it and served it to the entire unit. Soorajji was so upset he wouldn't speak to Abhishek for days.`
For Sooraj to kill an animal for fun was unthinkable.And when Salman and his friends allegedly did just that in Jodhpur, something broke within the sensitive Sooraj.
Says the friend, `Sorrajji didn't say a word to Salman. But he withdrew completely from the friendship.He held no grudges against Saif Ali Khan, Tabu , Sonali Bhendre and Neelam who apparently joined Salman in the poaching. They were not his friends. Salman was. Soorajji doesn't make friends easily. He felt betrayed.`
It took 11 years for the wounds to heal. The healing process had just started when this new courts' summons from Jodpur has opened up old wounds.
Says the friend, `Soorajji was trying his best to forget the incident. He had reached out to Salman and slowly the two of them had begun to bond once again.Soorjaji even wrote a screenplay for Salman after 12 years. But now this courts summons has again reminded Soorajji of the wounds that never healed.`
Apparently the Barjatya family is rather aggrieved by the fact that during all these years since the incident Salman never apologized to them.
`Not a word of regret. Just a simple. 'I'm sorry' to Soorajji if not the family would have sufficed. But that's not Salman's style at all. He never says sorry for anything. He never will.`
With the black-buck boogie again being raised, this family-friend of the Barjatyas wonders if that film that Sooraj was planning with Salman would ever be made.
`Things can never be the same between the two of them,` says the friend.
