Salman is puzzled since he can’t understand why his father will need to write a letter and release it to a television channel. “We live in the same house. My dad can call me to his room and talk to me. I really want to know who has written this letter and how did the news channel play it up without verifying if it was actually Salim Khan who had written it,” he says.

Salman who is currently shooting for Boney Kapoor’s Wanted Dead Or Alive and Subhash Ghai’s Yuvraj is also a little disconcerted with all the compliments he has received for a series of paintings depicting trees that he’s supposed to have done in Jodhpur jail. “I didn’t make those paintings as the television channels will have you believe. If you like them then please praise the real artist and not me,” he says.

Ask him to react to all those stories that insinuate that he’s unhappy with Katrina Kaif signing a Rajkumar Santoshi film opposite Shahid Kapoor and the Akshay Kumar-starrer Sing Is King and he says, “I’m Salman Khan, an actor. I’m not a secretary who will decide which films an actor should or should not do.” The actor also downplays news reports that he asked Santoshi to throw out Shahid from the Katrina-starrer. “I’ve been here for 18 years and every now and then there have been incidents of younger actors trying to get mileage by latching on to my name. It doesn’t bother me. We all know what happens to them,” he says pointing to you-know-who.

But is it true that he has a problem with the length of Katrina’s dress in the Ooncha Lamba Kad song of Welcome, which is currently on air? “As long as Katrina adheres to the Doordarshan guidelines, which we are all supposed to follow, she can wear whatever she wants to,” he says.

The way he makes it to the tabloids every other day maybe he should be called the King of the Tabloids. The actor’s sense of humour kicks in when he retorts, “Why that? First they called me Killer Khan then they called me Ponytail Khan maybe now they can call me King of the Human Race Khan,” he says.