When Ek Tha Tiger released in 2012, it didn’t just launch a blockbuster franchise—it quietly redefined what a Hindi action film could be. At the heart of this reinvention was the dynamic, often combustible collaboration between director Kabir Khan and superstar Salman Khan. As detailed in Mohar Basu’s book Salman Khan: The Sultan of Bollywood, Kabir’s recollections offer rare insight into how the film came together, shaped as much by creative conflict as by mutual respect.

Ek Tha Tiger: How the creative tussle between Kabir Khan and Salman Khan gave Bollywood its most iconic spy drama

Kabir Khan has openly acknowledged that having Salman on board transformed the scale of the project. The book quotes an interview of Khan wherein he recalled, “Aditya told me, ‘Kabir, making a film with a big star is a different beast and a different kind of film altogether, and I feel that you can now step up to that’. (That’s when) We wrote Tiger”.

At the time, Ek Tha Tiger was only the third film of Kabir’s career, while Salman was at the peak of his stardom and working with Yash Raj Films for the first time. Yet they decided to go ahead with it. “I never consciously thought that I would have to do something in a specific way just because Salman was in it. It was just the third film of my career, and here I was dealing with Salman at his peak. It was also his first time working with Yash Raj Films, and we were trying to make it international, so a lot of churning happened. Sometimes I had to pull him down and stop him from going overboard; sometimes he was pulling me up to do more. Some discussions were amicable, and some left one of us sulking,” Kabir shared.

One of the film’s most striking departures was its portrayal of the female lead. Katrina Kaif’s Zoya wasn’t written as a passive companion but as an equal—someone who could match Tiger step for step and even save him when required. Kabir has credited this strength to his approach to writing women who stand shoulder to shoulder with men, reflecting his personal value system. Katrina herself has echoed this sentiment, noting that Zoya’s power lay in how she was written.

Casting Katrina, however, was not straightforward. Salman and Katrina had broken up at the time, making the decision uncomfortable. Yet Kabir was convinced she was Zoya, just as Salman was undeniably Tiger. In a conversation recalled in the book, Kabir described the tense silence that followed the casting meeting, broken only when Aditya Chopra acknowledged it as a major casting coup.

“If there’s one actor I’d call family in this industry, it’s Katrina. She’s extremely close to me, to Mini, to my kids. Katrina was already Zoya when we went to see Salman. This was the stage where they’d broken up, so it wasn’t comfortable. I told him I wanted Katrina, and he knew my connection with Katrina. Adi and I were driving back from Galaxy Apartments to Yash Raj, and we were silent. We’d just cast Salman Khan for the first time, and for five or ten minutes he was silent, then he said, ‘Yaar bahut badi casting hai (This is a major casting coup)’. Aditya Chopra saying this … And the next day we announced it,” Kabir told Mashable India which has been used in the book.

The film also challenged the traditional narrative of cross-border love stories. Instead of choosing one nation over another, Tiger and Zoya rejected borders altogether, deciding to make the world their home. This philosophy carried forward into Tiger Zinda Hai and Tiger 3, reinforcing the idea that love, in Kabir’s vision, exists beyond geography and ideology.

In hindsight, Kabir finds it impossible to imagine Ek Tha Tiger without Salman Khan. He has admitted that calling another actor “Tiger” would feel forced, even cheesy. The character, the franchise, and its legacy are inseparable from Salman—a truth that underlines why Ek Tha Tiger remains a defining moment not just for the star, but for modern Bollywood action cinema.

Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Salman Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger gets INTERNATIONAL honour; is the ONLY Indian film to be featured at International Spy Museum, Washington DC, USA; Kabir Khan reacts