Palak Tiwari says her comment that Salman Khan tells girls to 'cover up' was misunderstood: 'All I wanted to say...'

Palak Tiwari has attempted to diffuse the controversy around her recent statement where she said that her Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan co-star Salman Khan would ask girls to ‘cover up’ on the sets in front of him. In a recent statement, Palak, who is making her Bollywood debut next week, has said that her statement was ‘misunderstood’.

In a statement, Palak said, “It’s really been misunderstood. All I wanted to say is that I have put certain guidelines for myself as to how to dress around people who are way senior to me, who have I pretty much grown up idolising. Salman sir is of course one of them.”

Earlier, in an interaction with Sidharth Kannan on his YouTube channel, Palak had spoken about working with Salman, she had said, “When I was AD-ing with Salman sir on Antim, I don't think many people know this, Salman Sir had a rule 'Ki koi bhi ladki mere set pe, neckline should be here (for every girl on my set, the neckline should be here), all the girls should be covered, like good proper girls’. So my mom saw me (going to set) in proper shirt, jogger and covered and all. She was like, 'Where are you going? How are you dressed so well?' I said I am going to Salman Sir's set. She was like 'Wow, very good'.”

After the interviewer asked her if such rules existed only for the women on the set, Palak responded, “He’s a traditionalist... Of course, he’s like ‘Jo pehenna hai pehno (wear what you like)', but he’s always like ‘My girls should always be protected’. If there are men around, whom she doesn’t personally know, it’s not his personal space where he doesn’t trust everyone, he’s like, ‘the girl should be safe, always’.” The comments had been criticised online with many questioning Salman’s behaviour.

Palak is set to make her debut in the film industry with Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan, which releases on April 21. Apart from Salman, the film also stars Pooja Hegde, Venkatesh Daggubati, Jagapathi Babu, Shehnaaz Gill, Vijender Singh, Raghav Juyal, Jassie Gill, Bhumika Chawla, and Siddharth Nigam. The film is directed by Farhad Samji.