Bollywood entertainer Salman Khan met Olympic silver medalist Mirabai Chanu on Wednesday. Salman took to Twitter to share a photo in which Mirabai Chanu was seen hugging him with a big smile on her face.
Congratulating Mirabai for her success in the recently held Tokyo Olympics, the 55-year-old ‘hero’ – Salman Khan posted a tweet saying, “Happy for u silver medalist @mirabai_chanu .. lovely meeting with u … best wishes always”.
Thank you so much @BeingSalmanKhan sir. I am a big fan of you and it was like a dream come true for me. https://t.co/CjGEA5fCEU
— Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (@mirabai_chanu) August 11, 2021
In response, Mirabai tweeted saying, “Thank you @beingsalmankhan sir. I am a big fan of you and its like a dream come true for me,” she wrote.
The Bollywood superstar was wearing a black T-shirt, and an ivory scarf around his neck, while the Olympian was wearing a pink shirt. And it is the scarf that attracted everyone’s attention, because of the motif made on it. Netizens spotted that there is a ‘deer’ on the scarf, and assuming that it was gifted by Mirabai Chanu, they hailed her for subtlety trolling the veteran Bollywood entertainer by presenting him the most “ironic” gift.
Social media users remembered Salman Khan’s complicated relationship with the deers as they recalled the actor’s involvement in the alleged killing of two blackbucks during the shoot of the film ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’ in 1998. Salman Khan, along with other Bollywood entertainers such as Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, and Sonali Bendre, was accused of allegedly hunting down two blackbucks in the Kankani village of Rajasthan during the shoot.
However, all the accused had got relief after the court acquitted the Bollywood actors in the Jodhpur blackbuck poaching case.
Well, the acquittal of Salman Khan in the blackbuck poaching case did not dissuade netizens from trolling Salman Khan on Wednesday after they assumed that Mirabai Chanu gifted a scarf that had images of two deers. Netizens took a dig at Salman Bhai, asking whether that the two ‘deers’ on the scarf represented the two blackbucks that the actor had allegedly killed in 1998 during the film shoot.
Several social media users trended #deer on Twitter to run a meme fest on the social media platform and said that the scarf ‘presented by Mirabai’ was a fitting tribute to the actor.
Nice shawl deer 👍🏻 https://t.co/hZ9iLuIC8G
— Maithun (@Being_Humor) August 11, 2021
Netizens pointed out that Deer and Salman Khan is a match made in heaven and also a ‘deadly’ combination.
Deer and salman match made in heaven😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/3nf7ByDSm1
— Prashant Ramvani (@prashantramwani) August 11, 2021
Deer 🦌 and Salman khan – a deadly combination https://t.co/J0dSET8O8m
— S S Varma Gadiraju (@varmagss) August 11, 2021
I see the Deer 🦌 Salman and Deer are old friends #Blackbuck https://t.co/W3GuDIKOs2
— 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐦 𝐊 🇮🇳 (@ShivamKreal) August 11, 2021
It is important to note here that although netizens were assuming that the scarf was presented by Mirabai Chanu to Salman Khan, there is no evidence or report confirming this. It could be just a scarf or stole that Salman Khan was wearing as a fashion accessory, or it could have been presented by Chanu. However, the deers printed on the scarf are actually related to Manipur.
A closer look at the image showed that the ‘deer’ in question is not a blackbuck but a Sangai or brow-antlered deer that is endemic to Mirabai’s home state of Manipur. The social media users erred in identifying the Sangai image on the shawl and instead mistook it for the blackbucks to troll Salman Khan.
Sangai or brow-antlered deer, which are found only on floating marshy grasslands or Phumids of the Keibul Lamjao National Park, located in the southern parts of the Loktak Lake, is the state animal of Manipur. The endangered species is only found in Manipur and is also revered by the Manipuri population.
In fact, if we zoom in on the photo posted by Salman Khan, we can see the words ‘Sangai’ and ‘Manipur’ printed just below the images of the deers.
Hence, it is appropriate for Mirabai Chanu to gift a scarf with ‘Sangai’ embroidery work on it to Salman Khan, whom she considers as her favourite actor, in case she gifted it to him, or Salman Khan chose an appropriate fashion accessory to meet the Olympian from Manipur.
Besides Salman Khan, Mirabai also met former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar during her visit to Mumbai.”Equally happy to meet you this morning, @mirabai_chanu! It was wonderful talking to you about your inspiring journey from Manipur to Tokyo. You’ve got places to go in the coming years, keep working hard,” Sachin Tendulkar wrote in his tweet.
Mirabai won the silver medal in the women’s weightlifting 49 kgs category in the recently held Tokyo Olympics 2020.
