He also questions the question on Bollywood by asking why is it that people from other professions haven’t spoken out about the media. ‘‘I haven’t heard any politician, businessperson, trade unionist, anyone say what I have said...So if I am the odd one I am the odd one not among Bollywood stars but in a larger sense.’’ But then, he qualifies, ‘‘maybe other people who feel like that don’t have a platform’’.

‘‘I think what only film magazines used to report 20 years ago, mainstream newspapers are doing now. Let newspapers call themselves film magazines. I am saying this as a reader, not a celebrity. As a celebrity I am happy the way newspapers are going. Not as a reader. Have one page for entertainment, have eight pages. But why can’t major newspapers report major important news on Page 1?...I have heard some newspapers sell news space. I have seen a TV news channel, I don’t want to name it, do a report on a new two-wheeler saying only good things about it?’’

The two newspapers Khan says he reads are The Indian Express and The Hindu. Hindu ‘‘is stricter about how it reports’’, Khan says, Express still ‘‘tries to balance (between serious and non-serious)’’. Really? Yup, says, Khan. Salman Khan’s jail term in Jodhpur didn’t make Page 1 of Hindu, but in Express it was Page 1. The Delhi edition of Hindu had put Salman on Page 1, I say. Okay, but the Chennai edition, which Khan takes, had the Salman story on Page 14. ‘‘And why not treat Salman as a ‘normal individual’. He’s committed a crime—does every conviction make Page 1?’’ So which conviction is Page 1? ‘‘If Modi is convicted, that’s Page 1,’’ Khan says.

... contd.