Guftagoo with Salim Khan (Part 3/3)

Salim Khan is best known for being the one-half of the prolific screenwriting duo, Salim-Javed. Father of Bollywood actor Salman Khan, he is a renowned screenwriter and actor of Hindi cinema. Salim Khan was born in Indore, Madhya Pradesh during the British rule. Khan's father was a police officer, while his mother had died when he was still young. In 1964, he married Sushila Charak. Salim and Suhila had four children: Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Sohail Khan and Alvira Khan. In 1981, Salim married the famous actor Helen. He debuted after director K Amarnath saw him at a wedding and was impressed by his good looks. He asked him to come to Mumbai, where he hired him as an actor. Khan acted in various movies, in large and small roles, for seven years. He was unable to capture the public's interest, and as a result, his acting career stalled. Salim Khan appeared in noted films like Teesri Manzil (1966), Sarhaadi Lootera (1966) and Diwaana (1967).

He met Javed Akhtar on the sets of Sarhadi Lutera. Salim Khan used to assist writer/director Abrar Alvi at first and Javed Akhtar used to assist Kaifi Azmi. Abrar Alvi and Kaifi Azmi were neighbours and from there on, Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar became friends and both of them ventured into scriptwriting. Javed used to write dialogues and then became a film scriptwriter. The duo shot to fame & popularly came to be known as Salim-Javed. Their first big success was the script for Seeta Aur Geeta (1972). They also had hits in Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973), Zanjeer (1973), Deewaar (1975), Sholay (1975), Trishul (1978), Kranti (1981), Zamaana (1985) and Mr. India (1987). Salim-Javed, many a times described as the most successful scriptwriters of all-time, are also noted to be the first scriptwriters in Indian cinema to achieve star status.

Anchor: Irfan