Nikhil Kumar for Apunkachoice

Mumbai, May 30: Salman Khan is touching new heights of popularity as a painter.

In Bollywood, Salman may not be at the top spot (hogged by another Khan), but the dashing actor has other talent that only a few in the film industry can boast of.

Salman’s skill and talent as a painter has come to the fore only recently, even though he has been doing sketches and drawings for many years now. He began painting about a year ago under the guidance of art student Nilesh Vede. Since then Salman has painted a number of canvases which he often gives to his father or close friends.

A few weeks back, Salman had given a number of his paintings for a charity auction organized by Plan India. But Sallu had pulled out one painting from the auction because it was able to get the highest bid of Rs 20 lakh only, which, according to Salman, was much less than the painting’s real worth.

The painting, an abstract, showed the back of a woman holding a child in her arms.

It seems Salman’s decision to pull out the painting from the auction was a wise one as the canvas has now reportedly been sold for a hefty sum of rupees one crore.

The painting has reportedly been bought by an art lover who apparently judged the painting’s real worth to be five times the amount bid at the auction.

Salman, in turn, is putting the money from the painting in his Salman Khan Foundation for charitable causes.

Now, this is called doing charity with business acumen.