Salim Khan- Star Screenwriter of Bollywood

Salim Khan

Salim Khan is an Indian writer, actor, and film producer. 

His career in screenwriting was very successful. In fact, his dynamic duo of Salim-Javed with Javed Akhtar were the first screenwriters to achieve a status equal to film stars.

His Personal Life :-

He was born on 24 November 1935 in modern day Madhya Pradesh, India.

His father Name was Abdul Rashid Khan and his mother died when he was just 9 years old due to Tuberculosis.

He has two wives from whom he has five children. 

First one is Salma Khan (Sushila Charak) from whom he has four children.

Salman Khan, Arbaz Khan, Sohail Khan, Alvira are the children of Salma Khan and Salim Khan.

Salim Khan With his sons and daughter

Helen Richardson is the second wife of Salim Khan. The couple adopted a girl named Arpita who was a daughter of a homeless woman who died on Mumbai footpath.

Acting Career of Salim Khan :-

K. Amarnath was the director who spotted Salim Khan.

He offered him a supporting role in a movie “Baarat” as he was impressed by his good looks.

The film did not do well and his role was a minor one.

He worked on several other movies but his role was so short that he didn’t get any credit for it.

Screenwriting Career of Salim Khan :-

After working in 25 films he understood that he is not that fit for acting so he changed his path to writing career.

His first notable film work was “Do Bhai”. He worked as an writing assistant of Abrar Alvi.

While working as an assistant he met Javed Akhtar and they both became friends and started writing together.

Their works were highly appreciated by the audiences and the era of Salim-Javed began.

Salim Khan used to write plots and stories whereas Javed Akhtar used to write dialogues and lyrics of songs also.

Rajesh Khanna gave them their first break as script writers.

“Haathi mere Saathi” was their first work as script-writers.  

After that they wrote several successful films like Sholay,  Andaaz, Seeta aur Geeta and Don.

Out of their 24 joint movies 20 were the big hits in Bollywood. 

Their era introduced the “Angry Young Man” of Bollywood Shri Amitabh Bachchan.

The duo ended due to some egoistic problems in 1982.

“Baghban” was the last unofficial partnership of Salim Javed in which Amitabh Bachchan  requested Javed Akhtar to write his final speech whereas Salman asked his father Salim Khan to write his final speech.   

After their split Salim Khan wrote thirteen scripts of movies like Patthar Ke Phool, Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, Auzaar etc.