Birthday wishes to legendary scriptwriter Salim Khan.
Salim Khan (born 24 November 1935) is an actor and screenwriter. In Hindi cinema, Khan is best known for being one half of the prolific screenwriting duo of Salim Javed. He is the father of three Bollywood actors Salman Khan, Sohail Khan and Arbaaz Khan. He is married to Salma Khan and to actress Helen.
Salim met Javed Akhthar for first time during the making of the film Sarhadi Lootera, which was to be Salim’s last acting appearance. Javed, who served as a clapper boy when shooting began, was later made the dialogue writer for the film by director S.M. Sagar. Their friendship began while both were working in this film, and developed further because their bosses were neighbors to each other. Salim Khan got a job assisting writer/director Abrar Alvi in finalizing screenplays and dialogues, while Javed Akhtar began assisting Kaifi Azmi in a similar capacity, with focus on honing poetry. Abrar Alvi and Kaifi Azmi were neighbors, and therefor Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar used to see a lot of each other. The duo hit it off well and formed a script-writing team that came to be known as Salim-Javed. Salim used to form stories and plots whereas Javed used to develop the dialogues and occasionally the song-lyrics for those films. They used to brainstorm and come to conclusions regarding the final draft of the film.
The Salim-Javed duo were hired by G. P. Sippy to work for Sippy Films as resident screenwriters. They produced the screenplays for several successful films like Andaz, Seeta Aur Geeta, Sholay and Don. Their first big success was the script for Andaz, followed by Adhikar (1971), Haathi Mere Saathi and Seeta Aur Geeta (1972). They also had hits in Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973), Zanjeer (1973), Haath Ki Safai (1974), Deewaar (1975), Sholay (1975), Chacha Bhatija (1977), Don (1978), Trishul (1978), Dostana (1980), Kranti (1981), Zamana (1985) and Mr. India (1987). They have worked together in 24 films including two Kannada films — Premada Kanike and Raja Nanna Raja. Of the 24 films they wrote 20 were hits. The scripts they wrote but which were not successful at box office include Aakhri Dao (1975), Immaan Dharam (1977), Kaala Patthar (1979) and Shaan (1980). Though they split in 1982, due to ego issues, some of the scripts they wrote were made into films later like Zamana and Mr. India which became successful. Salim-Javed, many a time described as “the most successful scriptwriters of all-time”, are also noted to be the first scriptwriters in Indian cinema to achieve star status.
Salim Khan after split from Javed wrote script and dialogues for successful movies like Angaaray (1986 film), Naam, Jurm and Kabzaa. Again Rajesh Khanna was responsible in giving Salim a revival in films as he asked director Rajesh Sethi to go to Salim and rework on the script he had.
Salim not very active in films from 1996 as the fold he wrote like Akayla, Toofan and others between 1988 and 1996 flopped. He wrote scripts for thirteen films from 1983 to 1996, after his split with Javed Akhtar. These included Majdhaar and the hit film Patthar Ke Phool which starred his son Salman Khan. Other notable hits were the scripts for Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya and Auzaar, both of which were produced by his youngest son Sohail Khan and starred Salman.
