Bollywood Star Salman Khan to Millions: “Plant-Based Meat Is the Best Protein”

It’s always a good day when you convince a friend to try Meatless Monday for the first time or maybe win your roommate over with your favorite dairy-free smoothie recipe. But how about being able to tell millions of people to take the plant-based plunge?

Well, that’s exactly what Bollywood great Salman Khan did on the finale of Bigg Boss season 14 recently, telling an estimated 13 million viewers of the popular Indian reality show to embrace plant-based meat, as Plant-Based News reported at the end of last month. (If you’re unfamiliar with his work and want a sense of just how big Khan is, he’s received a laundry list of prestigious awards and has 38.2 million Instagram followers.)

During the finale, he proclaimed “plant-based meat is the best form of protein,” adding that plant-based meat “is identical to meat like chicken and mutton and has that non-vegetarian taste.” Shardul Dabir, an innovation specialist at nonprofit Good Food Institute India shared a video clip from the show in a LinkedIn post praising Khan’s words.

Khan’s statement came as fellow Bollywood celebrity Riteish Deshmukh spoke about his plant-based meat company, Imagine Meats, in the finale.

It’s hard to overestimate the reach of this duo’s impact on the plant-based meat movement. It’s quite the star power punch inspiring us to fire up some plant-based chicken on the grill.