
Teenage Salman Khan in this vintage ad with Tiger Shroff's mother Ayesha! Who else can you spot?
India Today
It's kinda cute to see Salman Khan taking his first steps into the world of showbiz through an advertisement – something he did when he was a teenager. Ayesha Shroff revisited the vintage ad, which also features other known celebs.
Before he became a superstar, Salman Khan was just a newbie albeit an elite one, being the son of celebrated film writer Salim Khan. He had his struggling phase before he made his debut in Biwi Ho Toh Aisi in a supporting role. But not many know that five years before his Hindi film debut, Salman Khan did a commercial for a cold drink ad. Clad in white t-shirt and denims, a 16-year-old Salman faced camera for the first time. What is interesting is that Tiger Shroff's mother Ayesha Shroff was among the group of people in the ad! She shared the vitange advertisement on her Instagram profile.
Thanks to Ayesha Shroff, all 80s and 90s kids may take a nostalgia trip now. She shared a vintage ad shot in 1983. The commercial is filled with known faces including Ayesha, Salman Khan, along with the top models of the era, Shiraz Merchant, Sunil Nischol, Vanessa Vaz and Aarti Gupta, among others. The ad saw all of the models enjoying on a boat and had to jump into the deep waters of the sea. Salman knew swimming very well at that time which is when he was asked to play a small part in it.
Ayesha shared the ad on her Instagram account and wrote, "When life was simple and fun happy to hear it’s coming back! guess who is who @artisurendranath @kailashsurendranath @beingsalmankhan (sic)."
Talking about Salman's first brush with camera, ad filmmaker Kailash Surendranath told Mid-Day, "We needed good swimmers, who could swim underwater for the Campa Cola ad campaign, we were shooting in the Andaman Islands. Fortunately, Aarti (his wife) found Salman. Her dad had suggested him, as he was a friend of Salim saab."
He added, "He was just 16 at that time, but she'd seen him dive underwater and told me he was perfect, and packed him off to me. But when I saw him, I was amused as he looked like a kid. But then on Aarti's insistence, I made him take off his shirt and boy, even at that age he was ripped! So we signed him on."
Surendranath also revealed that Salman almost had cold feet when he saw other models at the airport before boarding the flight. "Aarti caught him and reassured that all would be fine, and from that day on, he was at our home all the time. He also became a member of the family," he said.