• Born to an army man father and a housewife mother from a middle class family,this person had absolutely no connections to the film industry, not even his distant relatives had any.
• He failed to clear his 12th grade examinations in the first attempt but later cleared it with first class.He discontinued his education after that as he was more inclined towards sports and martial arts than academics.
• He went to Bangkok after his 12th grade to learn Muay Thai(a Thai martial art form) . His family could only afford his onward journey ticket to Bangkok and he himself had to manage his expenses over there.
• He had to work at a restaurant (named metro guest house) over there as a waiter cum part time chef and slept in the kitchen of the same restaurant to manage his expenses.He claims the days he spent in Bangkok were one of hardest ones of his life, which taught him the harsh realities of the world and made him stronger.

• He had to  do many odd jobs after that to earn his living.
• He bought Kundan jewellery(Indian imitation jewellery) from Delhi and sold it  in Mumbai, while taking back clothes from fashion street in Mumbai  to Delhi for selling those over there. Just to cover up for the travelling costs.
• He sold UNICEF cards, just earning 5 paise(1 paisa=hundredth part of a rupee) per card.
• He worked at a travel agency in Kolkata and Dhaka for 2-3 years on a miniscule salary.
• He went door to door and asked people whether they were interested in learning karate, ran a small martial arts academy and earned just about 3K  a month by martial arts coaching.
• Did modelling assignments for small firms which paid him higher money than he earned for the whole month by teaching martial arts,this made him think seriously about taking up modelling as his profession.
• Worked as a background dancer with not so famous dance  groups which performed at Shanmukhanand Hall, Mumbai.
• As he could not afford to pay for shooting a portfolio, he worked as an assistant to ace photographer Jayesh Seth for some time to make up for his portfolio fees.That was his first interaction with the industry people.
• After a lot of struggle he finally landed a role in a Bollywood a movie in the year 1991.

You may think that after getting a break in Bollywood, his struggle  was over.His journey in Bollywood was not that easy one though. But  today this man is the first superstar in Bollywood history whose films  have collected more than 2000 crores(20 billion) in box office nett(as  of Feb 2013), he has been the highest tax payer for many years, one of the highest paid actor, successful producer, Padma Shri awardee and a complete entertainer.

• During the initial days of his career he got roles mainly in  films which were considered to be B-grade movies and  had no godfather   in Bollywood. He tried to give his best in the movies he got to work in.
• He is known to be a person who does most of his stunts without a body double since the times when  there was no CGI used. Most of the actors who have recently started  claiming of doing their own stunts  couldn't even think of it if there  was no CGI and modern tech.

• He is considered to be the most hardworking and professional person in Bollywood today by the industry people.
• At the time when people  thought Khans and  Kapoors ruled the industry, he carved out his own  path,without big banners and successful  directors and also without good  release dates(the khans have had the privilege of festive and holiday  releases most of the times).He has a massive fan following today inspite  of all the above factors.
• He is the fittest person in  Bollywood (Salman Khan, whom some folks consider to be the fittest has  said this). Man he is 48 and is aging gracefully. No Botox no facelift,  really!

• Holds a fifth degree black belt in martial arts, and is  trying to make it a compulsory subject in schools since many years , has  not been successful yet because of no initiative from the governments  side.
• He stays away from alcohol and smoking and all kind of  body building supplements, kids if you wanna follow someone please  follow him.
• His training consists of weightless exercises, Parkour, various martial art forms and has a habit to sleep by 10 PM and wake up by 4.30AM. He has dinner before 8 PM. He strongly insists that everyone should atleast give an hour everyday for the wellness of their bodies.
• He does philanthropic work time to time, runs a cancer hospital and  and many more but tries to maintain a low profile about it.He always  tries to stay away from all the controversies and cheap publicity  gimmicks  organizes an annual martial arts championship to promote the  sport and has given financial aid to many sportsmen till date.

• He  runs(in collaboration with Aditya Thakre)a self defence academy in  Mumbai exclusively for women and has trained more than 300 women so far.
• He  has had bad patches a couple of times in his career due to bad choices  of his films and directors who could not harness his true potential(at  once he even considered quitting Bollywood and setting up a hotel with  whatever money he had).People said his career was over , but he has  always bounced back much stronger and better than ever before.
• He is an inspiration for thousands of strugglers and gives them hope that even a commoner can make it big in Bollywood.
• When  asked about the secret of his tremendous success, he said "Each day  after I wake up I touch my mother's feet and take her blessings and   that is the secret of my success"and urges everyone to always respect  and take care of their parents.
• He has named his first production house after his father's name.
• Last but not the least, he is a good cook too !