You don’t have to look far for the fallout of Aishwarya and Salman’s messy split. Adman Prahlad Kakkar’s 2025 sit-down puts it back on the table, with him saying she ‘didn’t trust’ what was going on in Bollywood and was put off by the idea of being ‘abandoned’. His take on one of Hindi film’s most well-worn breakups is less about the love and more about the damage done.
Kakkar, an old acquaintance from her modelling years, let it slip to Vickey Lalwani that the actor felt the film world had turned on her once the romance was over. He called the end of it a ‘huge relief’, but the real sting, he says, was feeling let down by the very people you’d count on to be there for you.
What Kakkar says changed for Aishwarya
It was more than a broken heart, in his view. Aishwarya came to think ‘everybody was with Salman, not with me’ and that the rules of the game weren’t being followed. ‘It was one-sided,’ is how he puts it.
He made a point of being there for her, to say, ‘Don’t give it any mind.’ But the bond of trust was already gone. ‘She was most hurt to be put aside for Salman’s sake,’ he told us.
To put it in a nutshell, here is what comes out of the interview:
– The industry left her in the cold
– Post-split, she had no faith in Bollywood
– She was glad to be out of it
– In his eyes, the support was lopsided
Allegations about Salman Khan’s behaviour
Then there are the charges he makes against Salman. He calls him ‘very physical and obsessive’ and wonders, ‘How do you handle a person like him?’ He is quick to note, though, that Aishwarya never put him on to any of this.
He was in a position to see for himself, living in the same building. He claims to have seen Salman ‘make a scene in the foyer, even head-butt the wall’. And in his telling, ‘The relationship was over before anyone put pen to paper. It was a reprieve for her, for her family, for all of us.’
Timeline and Aishwarya’s public stance
On paper, they were done in 2002 and never put in an appearance together again. That’s the date that has stuck in the public’s mind when it comes to their short-lived, hard-to-ignore pairing.
Aishwarya has been unbothered to talk about it. When Simi Garewal brought it up in 2012, she put a stop to it: ‘I have put it behind me. I’m not one to make a public show of it.’
In private life, she tied the knot with Abhishek Bachchan in 2007 and they have their daughter, Aaradhya, from 2011. As for the time with Salman, she has left it where it is.
Why these remarks are resurfacing now
With his 2025 piece, Kakkar is making it about something other than who was with whom. It’s about a woman in the business dealing with the kind of isolation and mistrust that can follow a high-profile divorce. He makes it about the power play, not just the drama.
You could say he is turning the page from the scandal to what comes after. There is a certain poignancy to the mix of ‘relief’ and ‘betrayal’ he describes. For a lot of people, the thing that stands out isn’t the 2002 ending, but the fear of being cast out by the whole system.
Of course, these are his recollections, and he is speaking to what he saw and felt. Aishwarya has been content to shut the book on it, and in a town that won’t let go, that in itself is a statement.
