SaInt li er m v K ie h w an 90
Bike India // April 2013
Interview_Salim Khan_April13.indd 90
www.bikeindia.in
18-03-2013 5:42:27 PM
Salim Khan
The Flying Khan
Salim Khan needs no introduction. A veteran screenwriter who has co-written films like Andaz, Zanjeer, Deewaar and the cult film, Sholay, he is now better known as the father of the superstar, Salman Khan. Here is his story, spread over 50 years, from happy riding days in Indore, days of struggle in the Mumbai film industry to the recent restoration of the 1956 Triumph Tiger T100 that won him a first prize. Excerpts from an interview Interviewed By: Sarmad Kadiri Photography: Sanjay Raikar What is the story behind this bike? This bike has a long story. It started when I came to Mumbai in 1956 to order my first bike. There used to be a small Parsi-owned firm, called Imperial Motors & Bicycles, opposite the Roxy cinema-house, which used to import motorcycles to India. We had booked two Triumph Tiger T100 bikes, one for my cousin and the other for myself, at Rs 4,950 apiece. Once it was imported, we loaded it on a train and took it until Ratlam and then rode it all the way to our home in Indore. Why did you choose a Triumph? In the English movies I saw the policemen ride Triumph Speed Twins, which were really beautiful machines. While reading foreign magazine like ‘Screen Stories’ and ‘Photoplay’ I came to know that Marlon Brando and even James Dean, who was a cult figure in 1956, owned Triumphs. It inspired me to buy the British bike. I love its throaty sound and then it has a stance that resembles a real tiger. When did you learn to ride motorcycles? I got fascinated by bikes way back in 1954-55. I used to have bicycles to go to school and rode that with good control. There weren’t any hitech bicycles back then either, as my son, Salman, has – Mercedes and others fancy ones worth several lakhs of rupees. We had basic ones like Raleigh, Hercules and Philips. At that time Indore wasn’t as big and there were just six to seven motorcycles there. One of my friends, who also was a good mechanic, had a 1948 Triumph Speed Twin that I used to borrow and on which I learned riding. It must have been a special feeling owning a bike back then? We are originally from a place called Jaora, near Ratlam, and my bike had a special registration number: ‘Jaora 1’. During those days there were hardly 10 bikes in all in Indore. When I used to ride, no one overtook me, but only went past from the opposite direction. I had good control, even scraped the footrest while negotiating turns and never suffered a crash.
www.bikeindia.in
Interview_Salim Khan_April13.indd 91
Khan is a true blooded enthusiast and is very passionate about motorcycles, specially his T100
How fast did your bike go? My T100 came with a single carburettor. I believe Triumph later used to race the same model with dual carburettors. In the second gear it touched 70 mph (112 km/h) and used to stop accelerating at 95 mph (152 km/h) in the fourth and the moment I ducked on the fuel tank, it almost glided in air to cross the 100 mph (160 km/h) mark. Did you spend a lot of time with your T100? Mhow was about 15 miles from Indore and there were some cinema-halls that screened English movies. Since there were many military officers (who owned bikes) stationed in the city, the biking culture was more evolved. I used to often ride down there to watch movies and sometimes took my Triumph on a long tour to Bhopal, which was about 120 miles one way (almost 400 km return)! In 1958, when I came to Mumbai to join the film industry, my bike was lying in Indore. As it is my family members were already vexed by
complaints about me, “Aap ke bhai bahut tez motorcycle chalate hain” (your brother zips around on his motorcycle too fast). So, eventually they sold it. Was it the end of the biker in you? Not really. When I came to Mumbai, one could get motorcycles on hire. I remember hiring bikes from Dilli-wala, I think it was called Delhi Motorcycles, at Chor Bazaar. Later, in the popular song ‘Zindagi ek safar’ from the 1971 film, ‘Andaz’, I rode the Royal Enfield in all the long-shots as Rajesh Khanna’s body double. Since I was also the [story] writer of ‘Andaz’, the film-maker approached me for the riding shots, as I was known to be a motorcycle enthusiast. There are some shots wherein Hema [Malini] ji is seen sitting behind me as she wouldn’t have sat behind any duplicate. And for that entire day’s shooting all I got was a bottle of Red Label whisky, which in those days would have cost about Rs 75. After the shoot, we celebrated at Sippy Film’s story department office by popping open the bottle.
April 2013 // Bike India
91
18-03-2013 5:42:44 PM
SaInt li er m v K ie h w an
restoring his 1956 Triumph Tiger T100 1
1 A proud Salim Khan poses with the trophy awarded to his T100 as the best restored bike at the Vintage Car Fiesta 2013
2
2 The damaged cylinder barrel was replaced with refurbished engine with standard unused cylinder 3 Off went the Bullet wheel for a set of original Dunlop wheels and the rusted exhaust gave way for new ones
Before After
4 The fuel tank was respotered with Epoxy undercoating, finished with fine body paint 5 The headlight cowl gets a complete makeover and all the instrumentents are now operational
5
4
3
Before
Before
Before
After
After
After
6
Ready to take on the rivals: The Tiger T100 at the Vintage Car Fiesta 2013
92
Bike India // April 2013
Interview_Salim Khan_April13.indd 92
www.bikeindia.in
18-03-2013 5:43:02 PM
SALIM KHAN How did the Tiger re-enter your life? Few years ago, on my birthday, Sohail [the younger son] bought me a Triumph Tiger T100, of the same make and model. It was not in a very good condition, since it had some parts from other bikes; for instance, the carburettor was from Royal Enfield. Even the original parts were shabbily modified. He paid about Rs 75,000 for it and though it was in running condition I was not happy with its performance. Since I had used a brand-new T100 extensively, I had a fair idea of how the bike ran. So, the bike had to be totally dismantled and I sent it to Indore for restoration. Although they were able to fix the bike cosmetically, in terms of painting and other body work, I could not get the desired engine performance, because they were unable to source the right parts. Then I tried again in Mumbai, but even they failed as the bike used to heat up, leak and even misfire. Then I bumped into Jignesh (EGO Custom Wheels). He dismantled the bike and gave me a long list of parts that were needed to be imported from England. So, I arranged for all the parts for him, which cost me about Rs 6 lakh, including the Customs duty. All in all, I have spent about Rs 10 lakh to get it fully restored. What were you inputs during the restoration process? I kept guiding him from my memories of my new T100 and gave him details of parts like the overflow plate, speedometer, on-off knob and advance-retard switch. It had a single Amal
“When I used to ride, no one overtook me, but only went past from the opposite direction. I had good control, even scraped the footrest while negotiating turns and never suffered a crash” carburettor, the design of the side-stand and other such information. He knew he was dealing with a connoisseur. It’s a bit like drinking whisky: one who is accustomed to fine whisky would immediately make out if it is original Black Label or something diluted. So he gave it his best. Are you happy with the result? I was hell-bent on getting the feel of the new one which I had imported from England [over 50 years ago]. When he brought the bike to me finally after it was ready, I was very satisfied as there was not one thing which seemed out of place to me, just like my first Triumph. He had achieved what I had in mind. Now it has also won the first prize as the best restored bike at the Vintage Car Fiesta 2013 (organised by Vintage & Classic Car Club of India in Mumbai). Do you ride it now? Yes, I ride it at my Panvel farm every weekend,
as it’s not possible to ride in Mumbai city. Which of your sons share your passion for motorcycles? Arbaz is not interested in any kind of vehicles or machines, except phones, iPads and other gadgets. Salman and Sohail ride quite a bit. In fact, Salman loves riding bicycles and often pedals to his shooting locations in Mumbai. You’ll be surprised that a couple of times he cycled all the way to our farm in Panvel, which is almost 60 km away. He also owns some prestigious motorcycles and has also presented motorcycles to some people. Our association with bikes is very old. What do you think of the new-age bikes? My sons own some high-tech and very complicated superbikes and with the technical advancement the bikes have become very fast. But my Triumph was something else and had its own charm. I own a 2007 Triumph Bonneville also, but the T100 remains the most special.
MANUFACTURER Triumph MODEL YEAR
Tiger T100 1956
ENGINE
498 cc parallel twin OHV, four-stroke
POWER
27 @ 6,300 rpm
TRANSMISSION
4 speed / chain driven
WHEELBASE TOP SPEED
1400 mm 160 km/h (100 miles/h)
EGO Custom Wheels restored the Triumph Tiger T100 for Salim Khan. Jignesh Mistry and Rahul Dangle were actively involved in this restoration project. www.egocustomwheels.com
In the song ‘Zindagi E k Safar’ fr Khan rode om Andaz the bike fo , Salim rR long-shots , with Hem ajesh Khanna in so me a Malini si tting behin d him
www.bikeindia.in
Interview_Salim Khan_April13.indd 93
April 2013 // Bike India
93
18-03-2013 5:42:58 PM