In a scare on the eve of his birthday (on December 27), Bollywood megastar and 'Bigg Boss 15' host Salman Khan was bitten by a snake at his Panvel farmhouse. The snake was reported to be non-poisonous. The incident happened early on Sunday (December 26) at his sprawling farmhouse in Panvel, which is close to Navi Mumbai in the Raigad district. The farmhouse is located in a green, thickly forested area.
The snake bite caused panic in Salman Khan's security detail and family. He was rushed to a hospital in Navi Mumbai for treatment and later discharged on Sunday. Salman Khan was back to his farmhouse, where he celebrated his 56th birthday on Monday with close friends and family.
In the meantime, self-proclaimed critic and actor Kamal Rashid Khan aka KRK, who's had a not-so-good history with Salman Khan, took to his Twitter handle to take a dig at the superstar viz-a-viz the snake bite incident.
In his tweet, KRK wrote, "Saanp Ne Kaam Toh Theek Kiya Tha, Lekin Bechara Khud Hi Marr Gaya! KyonKi Saamne Wale Main Zehar Hi Itna Zyada Hai." The tweet roughly translates to, "The snake did its job well but it died because the person whom it bit had more venom in him."
The tweet did not go down well with Salman Khan fans and netizens in general. Social media users lashed out at KRK for his spewing venom against the superstar at a time when everyone was concerned about his health.
"Zehar toh aap mein toot ke bhara hai! The way you make fun of people's pain and mishaps...Allah se khauf karo!" wrote a Twitter user. "Stop this nonsense KRK...hadd par kar rahe ho." tweeted another user. "The way you keep spewing venom and heaping abuse on others, it appears you are a lot more poisonous than all deadly snakes combined together ! Your tweet, very much like that of an undh bhakt, is not in good taste, sorry to say." tweeted yet another user.
For the unversed, Kamal R Khan was just recently slapped with a legal notice by Salman Khan for passing derogatory comments on his film Radhe. The two were engaged in a legal battle of sorts which ended in Salman winning the case.
Meanwhile, talking to the media in the early hours of Monday, Salman Khan said the snake had entered one of the rooms of his Arpita farmhouse -- named after his sister -- and he had gone to rescue it when the incident happened.
Salman Khan said he also spoke to his worried father, veteran screenwriter Salim Khan, after the incident and assured him that both "Tiger and snake" were doing fine, referring to his character of Tiger, a spy in the blockbuster films "Ek Tha Tiger" and "Tiger Zinda Hai".
"When my dad came to know about this incident, he called to ask if the snake was fine and alive. So I told him 'Tiger' and the snake both are alive. He asked if we hurt the snake, I said we didn't, we handled it with utmost care and love and left it in the jungle," he told reporters.
The Bollywood star said the children were scared when the snake entered the room, following which he went in to take stock of the situation.
"I asked for a stick. The stick that came was a small one so I asked for a longer stick. Then I picked up the snake with a lot of love and brought it out, the snake wrapped itself on the stick and then it started climbing the stick upwards and it came quite close to my hand.
"So, I caught it with my other hand and dropped the stick to be able to leave the snake (in the jungle). The locals know what snakes come around, this was a Kandhari snake. So they started screaming 'Kandhari, Kandhari, Kandhari', that's when the snake bit me once. Then there was more chaos and that's when the snake bit me again. There was a lot of commotion, people said 'hospital, hospital', that it was venomous, and it bit me again," Salman Khan explained.
The "Bharat" star said he was then rushed to the hospital, where he got to know that the snake was not poisonous. At the hospital, Salman Khan was given an anti-venom shot and was kept under observation for six hours.
On his return to the farmhouse, the actor said the snake was still there. Khan quipped that he let the snake out in the jungle, before clicking a picture with it.
"My sister was quite scared with the whole incident, but I made friends with the snake and got a picture clicked with it before leaving it in the jungle. It must have also bit me because it was scared.
On the work front, Salman Khan was recently seen on the big screen in 'Antim: The Final Truth', which was released last month. He is also seen as the host of the Colors TV reality show 'Bigg Boss' and has the third instalment of his film 'Tiger 3', tentatively scheduled for a release next year.