Salman Khan on his facial nerve disorder: Fans do not care about that

Salman Khan talked at length about his facial nerve disorder for the first time to the media recently. The actor was at the launch event for a song from his upcoming film Tubelight in Dubai where he revealed how unbearable the pain could be.

“I was suffering from this nerve problem called trigeminal neuralgia. So I couldn’t talk. Had to talk like that (speaking with his mouth slightly closed) and huge amount of pain,” he said in a video posted on YouTube by Gulf News.

Trigeminal neuralgia is a disorder that affects the trigeminal nerve. It causes extreme, burning pain on a person’s face that can last between a few seconds to a few minutes. The pain can be so severe that the disease often causes depression in patients, according to Facial Pain Assosiation.

“That’s one disease that basically has the highest rates of suicides. Over education, over everything. There is so much of pain...I suffered that,” Salman added.

However, the actor did not let the disease deter him from his path. “So at that point of time, I realised that I need to work really hard. No matter how much pain you are going through, it made me realise that you can’t put any subtitles — your ligament is torn, you have the flu or that your knee is hurting — in any of your scenes. Your fans don’t care about it and that you really need to give your best on screen. Once it’s printed, it’s lifelong,” he said.

Salman even went to the US for treatment and is now well. He was in Dubai to shoot for Tiger Zinda Hai with Katrina Kaif, the sequel to the 2012 hit.

Tubelight releases in theatres on June 23.

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