My show starts with Salman, ends with Shah Rukh

Bollywood choreographer-director Farah Khan (pictured left) says it was a conscious decision to start her new television chat show with actor Salman Khan and his mother Salma, who has never given an interview before. And interestingly, the "Tere Mere Beach Mein" series ends with none other than Shah Rukh Khan.

"It was a joint decision taken by the channel and me. They felt that the episode turned out to be very candid and since Salman has never come on a chat show before, it could be a nice way to hook on the audience to the show. So we start with Salman and end it with Shah Rukh," Farah told IANS.

She said it wasn't difficult at all to convince Salman and his mother to be her first guests on the show that starts on Sunday (Aug 23) on STAR Plus.

"Salman has never come on a chat show - neither 'Koffee With Karan' nor 'Oye! It's Friday' and not even 'Rendezvous with Simi Garewal'. It's for the first time he's come on a chat show. His mother has never in her life come on a TV show or even given a print interview. And I just had to tell them once. It was very easy to convince them to come," said Farah.

The filmmaker managed to get several celebrities on her debut chat show but couldn't get her dream guests - former railway minister Lalu Prasad and singer-actor Himesh Reshammiya.

"I really wanted to get Lalu-ji and Himesh together for my show. But he (Lalu) had a cataract operation and so things couldn't work out. But I really hope these two people come to my show, if I have a second season," said Farah.

To give her chat show a twist, Farah has a separate theme for each episode. She brought Salman to talk about being a 'Mamma's boy' and Shah Rukh Khan as a henpecked husband. She had Priyanka Chopra talk about her struggle as an actor.

Asked what the theme for the Lalu-Himesh episode would have been, she said: "I wanted to get them in a category of 'I don't care people'. And these two people are such that no matter how much people imitate them, ridicule them or mimic them, they just don't care. They only do their work."

Other guests on her show will include Hrithik Roshan, Asin Thottumkal, Deepika Padukone, Abhay Deol, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Kareena Kapoor and cricketers Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan.

"Tere Mere Beach Mein" will be telecast every Saturday and Sunday at 9 p.m.

Indo-Asian News Service

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