Salim Khan is an Indian scriptwriter and actor. He wrote numerous screenplays for Bollywood films. He frequently collaborated with writer Javed Akhtar; the duo is credited as Salim-Javed.
Khan was born in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. Khan's father was originally from pathans Afghanistan, who later moved to India. His father was a police officer, while his mother died when he was still young.
In 1964, he married Salma Khan (birth name Sushila Charak), a Maharashtrian Dogra Rajput from Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Salim and Salma have four children together: Salman Khan (b. 1965), Arbaaz Khan (b. 1967), Sohail Khan (b. 1970) and Alvira Khan.
In the late 1970s, Salim married dancer/actress Helen, who lives in a separate house. Relations between his two families were rumored to have been tense at first, but Salim's children are now said to be fond of his second wife. They also adopted a daughter named Arpita.
Khan debuted after director, K. Amarnath saw him at a wedding and was impressed by his good looks. He asked Salim to come to Mumbai, where he hired him as an actor for Rs. 400 a month. Salim acted in various movies, in large and small parts, for seven years. He never captured the public's fancy and his career stalled. He appeared in such films as Teesri Manzil (1966), Sarhaadi Lootera (1966) and Diwaana (1967).
He met Javed Akhtar on the sets of Sarhaadi Lootera. Javed used to write dialogues and then became a film script writer and now a well-known lyricist. The duo hit it off and formed a scriptwriting team, known as Salim-Javed. Their first big success was the script for Seeta aur Geeta (1972). They also had hits in Zanjeer (1973), Deewaar (1975), Sholay (1975), and Trishul (1978). Salim-Javed, often described as "the most successful scripwriters of all-time", are also noted to be the first scriptwriters in the Indian cinema to achieve star status.
Salim and Javed split up in the early 1980s