Salim Khan

Salim Abdul Rashid Khan (; born 24 November 1935) is an Indian screenwriter, actor, and film producer. He wrote the screenplays, stories and scripts for numerous Hindi films. He is best known as one half of the prolific screenwriting duo Salim–Javed, along with Javed Akhtar. The pair were among the first Indian screenwriters to achieve star status in Hindi cinema, and remain among the most influential screenwriters in Indian film history. Within the partnership, Salim Khan primarily developed stories and characters, while Akhtar focused on dialogues and screenplay writing.

Together, Salim–Javed revolutionised Indian cinema in the 1970s, transforming the Bollywood narrative formula and pioneering the blockbuster format. and the Dacoit Western genre, and were instrumental in creating the "angry young man" archetype that defined Amitabh Bachchan’s career. Their major successes include Seeta Aur Geeta (1972), Zanjeer (1973), Deewaar (1975), Sholay (1975), Trishul (1978), Kranti (1981), and the Don franchise. Sholay became the highest-grossing Indian film of its time and is frequently listed among the greatest Indian films ever made.

Salim Khan is also known as the patriarch of the Salim Khan family, and the father of three Bollywood actors — Salman Khan, Sohail Khan, and Arbaaz Khan — and film producer Alvira Khan Agnihotri. He is married to Sushila Charak (also known as Salma Khan), and to actress Helen.

Over his career, Salim Khan has won six Filmfare Awards as part of Salim–Javed's partnership. In 2014, Salim Khan was offered the Padma Shri by the Government of India for his contributions to Hindi cinema, but he declined the award, stating that he deserved a higher honour.

In 2024, Amazon Prime Video released a three-part documentary series about the Salim–Javed screenwriting duo titled Angry Young Men. The series explores their creative partnership, their influence on the evolution of Indian cinema, and their personal journeys beyond the partnership.

Early life Salim Khan was born in the Indore in Indore State a princely state in British India (modern day Madhya Pradesh, India) into an affluent family. He pursued his studies at Holkar Science College, Indore.

According to Khan his grandparents are Alakozai Pashtuns who migrated from Afghanistan to India in the mid-1800s and served in the cavalry of the British Indian Army, however, author Jasim Khan, in his biography of Salman Khan, has mentioned that the ancestors belonged to the Akazai sub-tribe of the Yusufzai Pashtuns from Malakand in the Swat Valley of North-West Frontier Province, British India (present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan). Khan's family tended to look for employment in government service, and eventually settled in Indore.

Salim Khan was the youngest child of his parents, both of whom died by the time he was 14 years old. His father, Abdul Rashid Khan, had joined the Indian Imperial Police and had risen to the rank of DIG-Indore, which was the highest police rank open to an Indian in British India. Salim's mother, whose name was Siddiqa Bano Khan, died when he was only nine years old. She had suffered from tuberculosis for four years before her death, and therefore it was forbidden for the younger children come close to her or hug her; Salim therefore had little contact with his mother even before her early death. His father also died in January 1950, when Salim was only fourteen years old. Two months later, in March 1950, Salim (who attended St. Raphaels' School in Indore) appeared for his matriculation examination. He did moderately well, and enrolled in Holkar College, Indore, and completed his BA. His elder brothers supported him with funds drawn from the family's substantial wealth, to the extent that he was given a car of his own while he was a college student. He excelled in sports, especially cricket, and it was for being a star cricketer that he was allowed by the college to enroll for a master's degree at the end of his bachelors. He was also a trained pilot. During these years, he also became enamored of films, and received encouragement from classmates, who told him that with his exceptional good looks, he should try to become a film star.

Career

Acting phase (1960–1969) He worked as a supporting role in film Baraat directed by K. Amarnath. He would be paid Rs.1000/-(₹88,356.56 rupees in 2023) as a signing amount and a monthly salary of Rs.400/-(₹35,342.64 rupees in 2023) for the period of shooting. Salim accepted and moved to Mumbai, living in a rented apartment in Mahim. His brother owned transport trucks in Indore and helped him with money. While Baraat was duly made and released in 1960, it did not do too well.

Working under the name Prince Salim,

Salim-Javed phase (1971–1982)

Salim met Javed Akhtar for first time during the making of the film Sarhadi Lootera, which was fated to be Salim's last acting appearance. Javed, who served as a clapper boy when shooting began, was later made the dialogue writer for the film by director S.M. Sagar. The friendship with Javed began while both were working in this film, and developed further because their bosses were neighbours to each other. Salim Khan got a job assisting writer/director Abrar Alvi in finalising screenplays and dialogues, while Javed Akhtar began assisting Kaifi Azmi in a similar capacity, with focus on honing poetry. Abrar Alvi and Kaifi Azmi were neighbours, and therefore Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar used to see a lot of each other. The duo hit it off well and formed a script-writing team that came to be known as Salim–Javed. Salim used to form stories and plots, whereas Javed used to develop the dialogues and occasionally the song-lyrics for those films. They used to brainstorm and come to conclusions regarding the final draft of the film.

Rajesh Khanna is credited with giving them their first break as script writers. Javed Akhtar accepted in an interview that "One day, he (Rajesh Khanna) went to Salimsaab and said that Mr. Devar had given him a huge signing amount with which he could complete the payment for his bungalow Aashirwad. But the film was a remake [of Deiva Cheyal] and the script of the original was far from being satisfactory. He told us that if we could set right the script, he would make sure we got both money and credit." This was their first break as script-writers, and the film, Haathi Mere Saathi, went on to become a big hit. The Salim–Javed duo were hired by G. P. Sippy to work for Sippy Films as resident screenwriters. They produced the screenplays for several successful films like Andaz, Seeta Aur Geeta, Sholay and Don. Their first big success was the script for Andaz, followed by Adhikar (1971), Haathi Mere Saathi and Seeta Aur Geeta (1972). They also had hits in Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973), Zanjeer (1973), Haath Ki Safai (1974), Deewaar (1975), Sholay (1975), Chacha Bhatija (1977), Don (1978), Trishul (1978), Dostana (1980), Kranti (1981), Zamana (1985) and Mr. India (1987). They have worked together in 24 films including two Kannada films – Premada Kanike and Raja Nanna Raja. Of the 24 films they wrote 20 were hits. The scripts they wrote but which were not successful at box office include Aakhri Dao (1975), Immaan Dharam (1977), Kaala Patthar (1979) and Shaan (1980). Though they split in 1982, due to ego issues, some of the scripts they wrote were made into films later like Zamana and Mr. India which became successful. Salim-Javed, many a time described as "the most successful scriptwriters of all-time", Salim Khan was also personally responsible for introducing Bachchan to directors such as Prakash Mehra and Manmohan Desai.

Personal life

Khan has been married twice. His first marriage was to Salma Khan (born Sushila Charak), a Hindu, on 18 November 1964. Both of Charak's parents were Hindu: while her father, Baldev Singh Charak, hailed from Jammu, her mother was Maharashtrian. Khan and Salma have four children together; three sons, Salman, Arbaaz and Sohail, and one daughter, Alvira. In 1981, Khan married actress Helen Richardson, a Christian whose father was Anglo-Indian and mother was Burmese. Some years later, they adopted a girl named Arpita, daughter of a homeless woman who died on a Mumbai footpath.

Khan's eldest son, Salman, is one of the most commercially successful actors of Indian cinema. His other two sons, Arbaaz and Sohail, are also actors and film producers. His elder daughter Alvira is married to former actor and film-maker Atul Agnihotri, while his younger daughter Arpita is married to Aayush Sharma, grandson of Sukh Ram, a former Minister of Himachal Pradesh and long-time member of the Indian National Congress. His son, Salman Khan, describes him as a big fan of Kazi Nazrul Islam and is said to have read most of his poems.

Filmography

Screenwriter (Salim-Javed) Year Film Language Director Cast 1971 Andaz Hindi Ramesh Sippy Shammi Kapoor, Hema Malini, Rajesh Khanna, Simi Garewal 1971 Adhikar Hindi S.M. Sagar Ashok Kumar, Nanda, Deb Mukherjee 1971 Haathi Mere Saathi Hindi M. A. Thirumugam Rajesh Khanna, Tanuja 1972 Seeta Aur Geeta Hindi Ramesh Sippy Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Sanjeev Kumar 1973 Yaadon Ki Baaraat Hindi Nasir Hussain Dharmendra, Zeenat Aman, Vijay Arora, Tariq Khan 1973 Zanjeer Hindi Prakash Mehra Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Pran 1974 Majboor Hindi Ravi Tandon Amitabh Bachchan, Parveen Babi, Pran 1974 Haath Ki Safai Hindi Prakash Mehra Randhir Kapoor, Vinod Khanna, Hema Malini, Simi Garewal, Ranjeet 1975 Deewaar Hindi Yash Chopra Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Parveen Babi, Neetu Singh 1975 Sholay Hindi Ramesh Sippy Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri 1975 Aakhri Dao Hindi A. Salaam Jeetendra, Saira Banu, Danny Denzongpa 1976 Premada Kanike Kannada V. Somashekhar Rajkumar, Aarathi 1976 Raja Nanna Raja Kannada A. V. Seshagiri Rao Rajkumar, Aarathi 1977 Immaan Dharam Hindi Desh Mukherjee Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar, Rekha 1977 Chacha Bhatija Hindi Manmohan Desai Dharmendra, Randhir Kapoor, Hema Malini 1978 Trishul Hindi Yash Chopra Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Hema Malini 1978 Don Hindi Chandra Barot Amitabh Bachchan, Helen, Zeenat Aman 1979 Kaala Patthar Hindi Yash Chopra Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha 1980 Dostana Hindi Raj Khosla Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Zeenat Aman, Helen 1980 Shaan Hindi Ramesh Sippy Amitabh Bachchan, Sunil Dutt, Shatrughan Sinha, Shashi Kapoor, Rakhee Gulzar, Parveen Babi 1981 Kranti Hindi Manoj Kumar Dilip Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Hema Malini, Parveen Babi 1982 Shakti Hindi Ramesh Sippy Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Raakhee, Anil Kapoor 1985 Zamana Hindi Ramesh Talwar Rajesh Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, Poonam Dhillon, Ranjeeta Kaur 1987 Mr. India Hindi Shekhar Kapur Anil Kapoor, Sridevi, Amrish Puri Naam (1986 film)

Actor Baraat (1960) Police Detective (1960) Ramu Dada (1961) Professor (1962) Kabli Khan (1963) Bachpan (1963) Darasingh: Ironman (1964) Aandhi Aur Toofan (1964) Raaka (1965) Sarhadi Lutera (1966) Teesri Manzil (1966) Sarhaadi Lootera (1966) Diwana (1967) Chhaila Babu (1967) Lahu Pukarega (1968) Wafadar (1977) Mahabharat(1965)

Awards Filmfare Awards Year Category Outcome Film Director Notes1974 Best Screenplay Zanjeer (1973) Prakash Mehra Best Story 1976 Best Dialogue Deewaar (1975) Yash Chopra Best Screenplay Best Story 1983 Best Screenplay Shakti (1982) Ramesh Sippy

British Film Institute Sholay (1975) was ranked first in the British Film Institute's 2002 poll of "Top 10 Indian Films" of all time.

Honorary awards Lifetime Achievement Honour at Apsara Film & Television Producers Guild Award in January 2014. In 2015, he declined Padma Shri, stating that the honour did not match his contribution to Hindi Cinema, and that he believed he deserved a higher civilian award, such as Padma Bhushan.

Footnotes