Couldn't do action roles initially due to boyish looks: Salman

From the soft 'Prem' then the fearless 'Chulbul Pandey' to the notorious 'Devil', Salman Khan has made a smooth switch from the affable romantic roles to the larger-than-life heroes but the superstar says he could not imagine doing action roles initially because of his boyish charm.
Salman said had he tried making his Bollywood entry with an action film, the actor would have been compared to megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who was then known as the angry-young man.
Hence, the 49-year-old actor took to romantic roles, initially, like "Maine Pyar Kiya" and "Hum Aapke Hai Koun!".
"If I would have done action film that time in the 80s... The people would have said he is trying to be like Mr Amitabh Bachchan. It has taken us a lot of time to stay and reach here. When we all came we looked like boys. The heroes before us all of them looked like men," Salman said in an interview here.

"Then those who came next looked like young men like Sunny Deol, Jackie Shroff and Sanjay Dutt. We came we looked like boys. At that time we couldn't play inspectors, lawyers, local don, and all that. So we started off as romantic heroes... Did comedies and then now doing action," he said.
The actor said it took him two decades to make the transition and he feels grateful to the audience for allowing him to experiment with his roles.
"Our audience makes us large and it is not because of what we do on screen alone. It is the reaction that comes from audience that makes you very big. There are lots of people, who contribute," he said.

"That connect comes from first film and it builds up. It has taken us 25-27 years to reach here. From the last five years we have started doing larger-than-life parts but it has taken a lot of time to get this reception. You can't get this kind of love and support straight after entering the industry," he added.