DRUNK ON ARROGANCE: Khan has missed few opportunities to get into trouble

"Leave him alone. He is suffering and in deep trouble." Sanjay Leela Bhansali, director

Spurned by his lady love, Devdas turns aggressive stalker, nearly breaking down Paro's door, assaulting her and generally creating mayhem. Driving home after a night of frenzied drinking, the inebriated lover runs over a sleeping pavement dweller. If this were a modern take on the Sarat Chandra Chatterjee novel, Salman Khan would be the perfect choice for the titular role: a shirtless lover with cartoon-character muscles.

For these events could well have been a retelling of his real life story in the past few months. Incidents dismissed as a filmstar's fulminations until September 28, when Khan's Toyota Landcruiser ploughed into a pavement in Bandra, killing bakery employee Nurulla Sharif, 38, and injuring three others sleeping there. The actor was intoxicated and allegedly driving the car.

Khan, who lives in a mirror-filled ground floor flat in Bandra's Galaxy Apartments and has a dog named Myson, has a huge fan base. Over 50 websites are dedicated to the star with 17-inch biceps who sparked off the body-building craze in the industry. In less than 10 years, Biwi Ho To Aisi's skinny debutant morphed into Veergati's shirtless, ox-muscled pocket Hercules.

In the cola ad he appears in, Khan asks a rival cola drinker to grow up. But has Bollywood's superbrat grown up? Not quite. His physique has invited whispers of "roid rage"-violent mood swings associated with imbibing body-building steroids. Few actors have been able to match his repertoire of skills, offscreen that is. In the past two years film industry personalities from Subhash Ghai to Rishi Kapoor's son Ranbir have been at the receiving end of his fists, as have press photographers and his then girlfriend Aishwarya Rai. Then there are the allegations of underworld links.

HIT AND RUN STAR

September 28, 2.45 a.m.: White Toyota Landcruiser (first from above) rams into pavement in front of American Cleaners and Bakery, Hill Road, Bandra, Mumbai, killing one person and injuring three others. Salman Khan, who is allegedly at the steering wheel, flees.

September 28, 10.30 a.m.: Khan surrenders to the police. Is arrested for causing death by a rash and negligent act. Gets bail for Rs 950. At 2 p.m., Khan's blood test is taken at JJ Hospital, Byculla.

Two of the injured: Muslim Sheikh (from above) and Abdullah Rauf Sheikh. The blood test report on October 1 said Khan's blood had far more than the permissible limit of alcohol (30 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood). Police are now deciding whether to charge him with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

From superhit star to a hit-and-run driver, Khan's list of felonies began in 1998, when he was arrested for hunting endangered black buck in Rajasthan. Other antics of the actor-who has 41 films behind him, including Hum Aapke Hain Koun!, the highest grossing Bollywood film of all time-have ranged from the plain unfunny to the offensive. Like the time he lit a cigarette from the flame of the customary aarti on a shoot of K.C. Bokadia's Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam. Or when, as award host, he asked a startled Madhur Bhandarkar "Who are you?" when the director went onstage to collect an award on behalf of Chandni Bar actress Tabu.

"Beneath the rough exterior lies a very soft and caring person," says younger brother Arbaaz. Co-star Diya Mirza recounts how on a shoot in Jaipur last year, Khan stopped his car and dragged an inebriated man lying by the road to safety. "He's grossly misunderstood. The trouble is he hasn't attempted to set the record straight."

But eyewitnesses at the accident spot say there was no sign of the hero who people say had leaped into the sea to save a drowning person off his Band Stand residence or the anonymous philanthrophist who funds cancer hospitals. Khan fled, leaving the injured workers writhing in pain. He surrendered at the Bandra police station seven hours later.

His bail of Rs 950 had a fuming Maharashtra Home Minister Chhagan Bhujbal ordering a police enquiry headed by a joint commissioner of police. Now the actor, whose blood tests establish he was positively drunk at the time of the accident, could face charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, an offence that carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

Khan denies driving the landcruiser while lawyer Waris Pathan wonders what the fuss is all about. "Accidents happen in Mumbai every day and the law provides a bail of Rs 950. This hue and cry is being raised only because Salman is involved." Incidentally, police say they have discovered that the star has never had a driving license.

The crash came hours after ex-girlfriend Rai's first candid admissions about their break-up, revealing that Khan couldn't come to terms with the separation and had been stalking her, even getting physically abusive. In December 2001, he fisted the door of Rai's Lokhandwala complex apartment for six hours. A month later, he slammed his vehicle against Rai's car. That's when the police warned him to stay away from her. Last fortnight, he landed up on her sets in Pune, allegedly beating her and abusing co-star Shah Rukh Khan and director Aziz Mirza.

But Khan still has loyal supporters. "Leave him alone," implores Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who directed Khan and Rai in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. "He is suffering and in deep trouble. It's a big battle he has to fight." Bollywood would have forgiven him these misdemeanours if he had delivered hits. But with two successive disasters-Tum Ko Na Bhool Payenge and Yeh Hai Jalwa and his last superhit, Biwi No. 1, in 1999, a faint memory, Khan's career is at an all time nadir.

He has only two films with second-rung directors-Satish Kaushik's Tere Naam and K.S. Atheyaman's Dil Churake Chal Diye-and the industry admits it will take a superhuman effort for him to gain lost box office ground. Particularly when at 37 he is approaching the expiry date of his romantic hero shelf life. "It may be too late for him to rise to any appreciable heights," says trade analyst Komal Nahta. "He has burnt his bridges with too many people in the industry."

Films, for the moment, are the last of Salman Khan's worries.