Ali Abbas Zafar is gearing up for his next film, ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan,’ starring Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff, which is scheduled to release theatrically on April 10. Ahead of the film’s premiere, the director is actively promoting the film and in one of those talks, he addressed speculations surrounding his alleged conflict with Salman Khan.

The director, known for casting the actor in films such as ‘Sultan’ and ‘Tiger Zinda Hai,’ addressed these reports which hinted at fallout with Salman Khan after their third collaboration, ‘Bharat.’ However, recently, a shout out from the superstar to the trailer of Zafar’s upcoming film prompted the director to address the supposed fallout and discuss the nature of their relationship.

During an interview with Connect FM Canada, while Ali Abbas Zafar did acknowledge the fact that two have had many disagreements, he also emphasized that there is a strong mutual admiration between them. “There is this line in ‘Sultan,’ ‘Jahan pyaar zyada hota hai, wahan ladai jhagde bhi zyada hote hai (Fights will be there where there is immense love).’ We share a love like that. Whenever we are shooting, we often disagree with each other but I know that I love him the way his family loves him and there is a beautiful star and a very good actor in him and very few look at it,” the director said of their bond.

“If he loves you, he will love you to death, if he is angry with you, he will show that anger, if he doesn’t like you, he will let you know that he doesn’t like you,” Zafar said of Khan, adding, “He is such a pure soul that even though we have not worked together in the last 5-6 years, whenever we meet each other, we speak with the same love and respect. My respect for him is very high.” Zafar also stated that Khan is one of the two people who have “contributed a lot to my career,” the other being Aditya Chopra.

Calling Khan a “very secure star,” the filmmaker went on to express his desire to continue collaborating with him regardless of any challenges. He further noted that whenever he conceptualizes a project, the ‘Tiger’ actor is the first choice that comes to his mind.

Now whether or not the two personalities will team up for another project in the future is yet to be seen.