Explained: During the filming of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s musical ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam,’ Aishwarya Rai began dating Salman Khan in 1999

Aishwarya Rai and Salman Khan in a still for the film Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. (Image: Twitter @SibiNews_pk)

Bollywood stars Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan were spotted in one frame after years at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) fashion event in Mumbai. While Salman was seen posing, one could see Rai Bachchan in the background with her daughter in the picture which was published by paparazzi Viral Bhayani. “Who saw Salman and Aishwarya in the same picture?” a user commented. Read more on this here

But why is this such a big deal? The answer lies in the actors’ relationship with each year, which ended about 24 years ago, and saw many public ups and downs. A route down memory lane:

Salman and Aishwarya Began Dating During the Shooting of ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’

During the filming of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s musical ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam,’ Aishwarya Rai began dating Salman Khan in 1999. While filming, the two began spending a lot of time together and became close, according to reports.

Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam starred Aishwarya Rai, Salman Khan and Ajay Devgn. (Image: T Series via Twitter @slumdogreviewer)

However, all was not well in paradise, and soon Rai put an end to their romance after claiming that Salman engaged in ‘alcoholism’ and ‘abuses (verbal, physical, and emotional),’ as per a Times of India report. According to the actress, Salman had not accepted their break-up and ‘would hound her and threaten physical harm to himself if she refused to receive his calls.’

The Filmfare Award and Revelations

According to a Jagran Josh report, in 2000, Rai walked up to the Filmfare Awards platform to accept the award for Best Actress for her role in ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.’ But the audience was taken aback as Rai went on to the stage with a pair of black glasses and a broken arm. This fueled allegations of her being in an ‘abusive relationship’ with Salman Khan.

Later that year, in an interview with Filmfare magazine, Aishwarya remarked, “Why don’t people believe that I fell down the stairs? The same media portrayed me as a strong woman. Now it wants to paint me as a helpless one. I would never tolerate nonsense behaviour. Nobody can act savagely with me. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger can get hurt in an accident. So, why can’t I? I would have retaliated if I were physically attacked. This news is baseless. My silence has further fuelled the rumours. But I don’t like to react to frivolous things.”

Aishwarya altered her comments months later and discussed her breakup with Salman Khan, said the report.

And in 2002, after being in a near-fatal accident, Rai issued a lengthy statement on her break-up with Salman, according to the Times of India report. “For the sake of my well-being, my sanity, my dignity and the dignity and self-respect of my family — ENOUGH! I will not work with Mr Salman Khan. The Salman chapter was a nightmare in my life and I am thankful to God that it is over!”

“While I have maintained a dignified silence about him and his wrong-doings, he (his family and friends) has repeatedly attacked the respect, dignity and pride of me and my family (with irresponsible rumour-mongering. I stood by him enduring acholism, misbehavior in worse phases and in turn, I was at the receiving end of his abuse (verbal, physical, emotional), infidelity and indignity. That is why like any other self-respecting woman and God is witness, I said enough and ended it almost two years ago but because of a dignified silence, all have misrepresented my stand and spread rumours about my character and baselessly alleged affairs and tried to spoil healthy working relations with costars. I do not want to get into the gory details and obnoxious experiences, which incite washing dirty linen and other ugly untruths.”

“For a long time now, they have time and again tried to wreck my peace and sanity both personally and professionally. But they’ll forget no one can play God because there is God! That is the only truth,” a part of her statement had read.

The Vivek Oberoi Chapter

After her break-up with Salman, Aishwarya allegedly started dating Vivek Oberoi. However, that too took on a dramatic turn of events after Oberoi in 2003 called an explosive press conference and said he had received 41 calls from a drunk Salman “abusing him and threatening to kill him over his closeness with Aishwarya.”

Aishwarya married actor Abhishek Bachchan in 2007, and welcomed her first child, her daughter in 2011. Salman is currently rumoured to be dating Romanian TV presenter and singer Iulia Vantur.

Both have avoided interactions since their romance turned ugly, which is why people were surprised to see them under the same roof during the event.