Bollywood superstar Salman Khan faced the prospect of a decade in prison as a court took up the long-running criminal cases against him — a legal saga that had dragged through the Indian judiciary for years and that highlighted both the persistence of the legal system and the protections that wealth and celebrity can provide within it.

The cases against Khan included a 2002 hit-and-run incident in which his vehicle allegedly ran over pavement dwellers sleeping outside a bakery in Mumbai, killing one person and injuring four others. Khan was accused of driving under the influence. Legal proceedings in the case stretched on for more than a decade.

Khan also faced poaching charges related to alleged killings of blackbucks — a protected species — in Rajasthan in 1998. The blackbuck case, which involved multiple co-accused from Bollywood, attracted significant attention because of the involvement of not just Khan but other prominent actors.

For Khan's millions of fans, the ongoing legal proceedings were a source of anxiety and fierce partisanship. His supporters argued that the cases were being dragged out and politically motivated; critics countered that the delays themselves were evidence of how wealth and celebrity could use the legal system's complexity to defer accountability indefinitely.

The cases also became a cultural reference point in broader debates about equality before the law in India — whether the promise of a uniform legal system was a reality or an aspiration that broke down when defendants had the resources to sustain years of appeals, adjournments, and procedural maneuvers.

Khan continued making films throughout the proceedings, remaining one of Bollywood's most commercially successful stars even as his legal status remained unresolved.