Salman way ahead of his contemporaries: Arbaaz Khan

In fact, he is making his directorial debut with Salman-starrer 'Dabangg 2', a sequel to the 2010 hit action comedy 'Dabangg'. 'Not only from a director's point of view, but Salman is a star for everybody... he is the most bankable actor currently,' said Arbaaz during the promotion of 'Dabangg 2' here Tuesday.

'One can see it from his past few releases. He is clearly a winner and obviously way ahead of his contemporaries in terms of box-office collection,' he said proudly.u00a0In the sequel, coming out Dec 21, Salman is reprising his role of Inspector Chulbul Pandey and Sonakshi Sinha will be seen as his wife.

There was tremendous pressure on him while he was making the sequel.u00a0'Pressure is there as it's (film industry) a very competitive line with huge fan following for Bollywood. So whether it's the first film, second film or third film, everyone expects the film to be successful at the box-office,' said the 45-year-old.

'As far as sequel is concerned, obviously there is a lot of expectation… We only thought of making a soulful film with no business parameters involved,' he added.u00a0Arbaaz, who is also co-producing the film along with wife Malaika Arora, said the actress is returning in the sequel in her famous Munni avatar.u00a0'Malaika is doing a brief appearance in one of the songs,' he said.