ARTS / CULTURE & LEISURE
Bollywood megastar Salman Khan survives snake bite
Published: Dec 29, 2021 06:20 PM
Vehicles move past billboards of Bollywood film 83, which is based on India's first cricket world cup victory in the year of 1983, in Mumbai on December 24, 2021.  Photo: AFP

Vehicles move past billboards of Bollywood film 83, which is based on India's first cricket world cup victory in the year of 1983, in Mumbai on December 24, 2021. Photo: AFP



Bollywood "bad boy" Salman Khan has revealed how he starred in his own real-life action drama when he was bitten by a snake and spent six hours in hospital. 

Khan - who enjoys a cult-like status in star-obsessed India - said the serpent bit him twice when he tried to remove it from his countryside home near Mumbai.

Using a stick, Khan said he "picked up the snake with a lot of love and brought it out, and the snake wrapped itself on the stick and then it started climbing upwards," he told reporters.

After he was bitten, local villagers "screamed 'hospital, hospital, hospital,' saying that I should be taken to a hospital quickly. There was so much commotion, the snake was a bit venomous, and it bit me again."

The actor was administered with antivenom, kept under observation and then discharged after six hours.

Khan is one of Bollywood's biggest draws, despite controversies that include homicide and killing rare antelopes.