Bollywood superstar Salman Khan said that era of stars would never cease to exist in the film industry. However, he added that the newer generation of actors needs to put in hard work in order to get stardom as it won’t be handed over to them.

Salman, along with his contemporaries like Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn, has remained one of the biggest stars since the ’90s and continues to dominate the box office.

“Even I’ve been hearing that ‘stars ka zamana khatam ho gaya hai’ (the era of stars is over). Since four generations I’ve been hearing, ‘This is the last generation of stars…’ “But we won’t leave it for the younger generation to take it easily, we won’t hand it over to the them. They have to work hard, like we are doing at the age of fifty plus,” Salman said in a group interview.

The 55-year-old actor enjoys a huge and loyal fan base in India. He said that stardom is a result of the right “package” which involves not only film choices but also one’s personality.

Salman said new actors will also have things working for them as the stardom that he enjoys won’t ever be restricted to him.

“Era of superstars will never fade. We will go, someone else will come up. I don’t think the era of stars will go, it’ll always be there. But it depends on a lot of things.

“Selection of movies, what you are in real life. It’s a whole package. The younger generation will surely have their superstardom.”

Currently, the ‘Bodyguard’ actor is gearing up for his latest release – ‘Antim’. In that, he plays the titular role of a Sikh cop.

Directed by Mahesh Manjrekar, the action thriller also stars Aayush Sharma, Salman’s brother-in-law, as a gangster.