Salman Khan

Salman Khan - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Salman Khan

Salman Khan (born 27 December 1965) is an Indian actor, film producer, and television personality who works primarily in Hindi cinema. In a career spanning over three decades, his awards include two National Film Awards as a film producer, and two Filmfare Awards as an actor. He has acted in over 80 films. He has been cited as one of the most popular and commercially successful actors of Indian cinema, and was included in Forbes lists of the world's highest-paid celebrities in 2015 and 2018.

This profile of Salman Khan covers Early Life and Family Background, 1988–1991: Debut and breakthrough, 1992–1996: Major success and slump, 1997–1999: Rise to prominence and Career and Rise to Fame.

Khan began his acting career with a supporting role in Biwi Ho To Aisi (1988), followed by his breakthrough with a leading role in Sooraj Barjatya's romantic drama Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), for which he was awarded the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut. He established himself with other commercially successful films, including Lawrence D'Souza's romantic drama Saajan (1991), Barjatya's family dramas Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994) and Hum Saath-Saath Hain (1999), the action film Karan Arjun (1995) and the comedy Biwi No.1 (1999). This followed a period of decline in romantic comedy, musicals and tragedy drama in the 2000s.

Khan resurrected his screen image with the action film Wanted (2009), and achieved greater stardom in the following decade by starring in the top-grossing action films Dabangg (2010), Bodyguard (2011), Ek Tha Tiger (2012), Dabangg 2 (2012), Kick (2014), and Tiger Zinda Hai (2017), and the dramas Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) and Sultan (2016). This was followed by a series of poorly received films which failed critically and commercially, except for Bharat (2019) and Tiger 3 (2023). Khan has starred in the annual highest-grossing Hindi films of 10 individual years, the highest for any actor.

In addition to his acting career, Khan is a television presenter and promotes humanitarian causes through his charity, Being Human Foundation. He has been hosting the reality show Bigg Boss since 2010. Khan's off-screen life is marred by controversy and legal troubles. In 2015, he was convicted of culpable homicide for a negligent driving case in which he ran over five people with his car, killing one, but his conviction was set aside on appeal. On 5 April 2018, Khan was convicted in a blackbuck poaching case and sentenced to five years imprisonment. On 7 April 2018, he was out on bail while an appeal was ongoing.

Early Life and Family Background of Salman Khan

Khan is the eldest son of screenwriter Salim Khan and his first wife Sushila Charak, who adopted the name Salma. Born to a Muslim father and Hindu mother on 27 December 1965, Salman Khan was brought up in both faiths. In 1981, when Salim married the actress Helen, the children's relationship with their father grew hostile and only recovered years later.

According to Salim, his paternal great-grandparents are Alakozai Pashtuns from Afghanistan who immigrated to Indore State, Indore Residency (now in Madhya Pradesh), British India in the mid-1800s; but author Jasim Khan in his biography of the actor states that 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). His grandfather Abdul Rashid Khan was a Deputy Inspector General of the Indore state who was awarded the Diler Jung award of the Holkar times. Khan's mother is a homemaker, whose father Baldev Singh Charak, a Dogra Rajput, comes from Jammu in Jammu and Kashmir and whose Maratha mother comes from Maharashtra. Khan can also speak Marathi, in addition to Hindi and English. He has two brothers, Arbaaz Khan and Sohail Khan; and two sisters, Alvira Khan Agnihotri, who is married to actor-director Atul Agnihotri, and an adopted sister Arpita, who is married to actor Aayush Sharma.

Khan did his primary schooling at the Scindia School in Fort, Gwalior along with his brother Arbaaz. Later he shifted to St. Stanislaus High School in Bandra, Mumbai, as did his younger brothers Arbaaz and Sohail for their higher secondary education. He attended St. Xavier's College in Mumbai but dropped out.

1988–1991: Debut and breakthrough of Salman Khan

Salman Khan made his on-screen debut in 1988 with a supporting role in the successful film Biwi Ho To Aisi, which had Rekha in the lead role. The following year, he played the lead in Sooraj Barjatya's romantic musical Maine Pyar Kiya opposite Bhagyashree. The film backed up with chartbuster music went on to become an All Time Blockbuster at the box office and made Khan a star. It also won him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut.

He began the new decade with Deepak Shivdasani's action drama film Baaghi: A Rebel for Love (1990), which he also wrote. Baaghi opened to positive critical reception and was a box office hit. Khan's run continued in 1991 with his solo venture Sanam Bewafa and his parallel lead role in the Sanjay Dutt starrer Saajan, emerging as hits and their soundtracks proving to be two of the best-selling Hindi film albums of that year. His other releases of the year, Kurbaan and Patthar Ke Phool also performed well commercially.

1992–1996: Major success and slump

In 1992, Khan starred in the dark fantasy horror film Suryavanshi, which was a major commercial and critical failure. The film is remembered for Khan's look which was inspired by Thor and He-Man.

In 1994, Khan appeared in Rajkumar Santoshi's Andaz Apna Apna, co-starring Aamir Khan. At the time of its release, the film was a failure at the box office but has gained a cult status over the years. Later in the year he collaborated with director Sooraj Barjatya in the romance Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! Co-starring Madhuri Dixit. During the 1995 awards season, the film won 3 Filmfare Awards for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress. It also won the National Film Award for being the most popular film of the year. Earning more than ₹2 billion ($63.8 million) worldwide, the film became the biggest Bollywood hit of the year and the highest-grossing Indian film up until then. It is one of the films on Box Office India's list of "Biggest Blockbusters Ever in Hindi Cinema". In 2006, it was still the fourth-highest grossing Bollywood film ever, according to Box Office India. In 1995 he starred in Rakesh Roshan's Karan Arjun alongside Shah Rukh Khan. The two played brothers who are reincarnated after being killed by family enemies. His role as Karan earned him a nomination for the 1995 Filmfare Best Actor Award.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Khan), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.