Salim Khan

Salim Abdul Rashid Khan (born 24 November 1935) is an Indian actor, film producer and screenwriter. He wrote the screenplays, stories and scripts for numerous Bollywood 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. They popularised the masala film 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.

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 Richardson Khan.

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.

Salim Khan was born in the city of Indore in Indore State a princely state in British India (modern day Madhya Pradesh, India) into an affluent family. Khan's grandparents, are believed to be Alakozai Pashtuns who migrated from Afghanistan to India in the mid-1800s and served in the cavalry of the British Indian Army. According to Jasim Khan in the biography of Salman Khan, his ancestors belonged to the Akuzai 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.

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.