Biography



One thought, and with reason enough, that Salman Khan had only biceps and some stylish hops to offer to Bollywood.



The notion changed with time. Salman had acting cells in him as well. After all, he also was one with film lineage. Salman's father Salim is a renowned scriptwriter. And stepmom Helen leaves an indelible mark in Hindi films as the sensuous epitome of a cinematic diva.



The actor came of age with Sooraj Barjatya's Maine Pyar Kiya. Hum Aapke Hain Kaun's phenomenal success established Salman as one of the formidable Khan trio.



Today he is a sought after hero, working with almost all top banners. On the personal front, Khan had lovely ladies as his women. Salman's love story began with Sangeeta Bijlani and at the moment is on a halt with the ex-Miss World and Bollywood's current leading lady Aishwarya Rai.



Ah! the pressures of being one of the hottest hunks. His presence seems to provoke a scene wherever he goes. Hysteria breaks out - thousands of girls go all coy and blushing in his presence, not quite knowing where to look. Female visitors to the sets of his movies tend to leave with their knees distinctly weaker than when they arrived. Go to a girl's college and you'd come across snippets of such breathless chat: "Salman is the best thing to have happened to Hindi films - he's so handsome, so intriguing, so sexy." Said one of his leading ladies, "Oh, my God, it's so difficult to ward off his female fans, they're crazy about him." Female public's growing obsession with Salman is the best indication of the fact that we're clearly in the grip of 'Salman mania'



Paparazzi can't track the elusive star down..he's an extremely private person. As far as he's concerned, work stops when the camera stops rolling. And not to forget the adversary relationship with the Press that dubbed him 'a bad dude, with the disposition of a wild snot and fists of fury'. Well, if he needs that fury 'to keep scums at bay' why should it be denied him?



At close range, Salman is boyishly likeable. He makes you want to reach through his physical deterrence and give him a friendly pat, as he smiles, lowering his eyes and shakes your hand. There's something about him, an instant familiarity. With no curtain of diffidence to drop, no attitude problem, he immediately opens up as if he were an old pal. He's the kind of a guy whose company one seeks because he is loaded with natural charm. He laughs easily at your humour, pays close attention to your questions and answers them fully and thoughtfully. He's focussed without being strained. Salman's reputation for being rude doesn't mean a thing once you meet him. You can't believe any bad stuff written about him and can easily shrug off business built on gossip which leads to a lot of misunderstanding and tarnishes someone's name. In real life he's a completely normal guy. With just one big difference. Salman has it- the star quality. But he is one of those rare actors who hasn't taken full advantage of his charms or star status. Anyone in his place could've signed any number of movies, but this is a hunk through which a grassblade of conscience heroically peeks. Salman has always made it a point to be part of an ensemble which is the mark of the very substantial, committed and up person that he is. There's a rare spine of integrity to everything he does, like turning down roles which didn't agree with him - temperamentally. It's easy to see why he commands respect.



A romantic film seems to be his normal habitat, playing all too clean-cut heroes. "Playing the romantic," says Salman, 'is perfectly consistent with my image. So why should I move out of it?" Trying to avoid the apparent rough and tumble in a film? "It's not as if I don't do action films - in fact, I have a wider choice of roles than many others. Wasn't Veergati an action film ?



Maine Pyar Kiya was his first movie, Salman started his career with a super hit movie to his lot. After Maine Pyar Kiya was Pathar Ke Phool which had good music but movie failed at box office.Salman started signing films after films and flops started to fell in his lot. Jagruti, Dil Tera Ashique were few of them. Baaghi was also a hit movie and thus Salman's successful career started. Then came Lawerance D'souza's Saajan which was a hit and it proved this hero could perform serious role whn wanted in the film to potray his character . "In Saajan, Sanju (Sunjay Dutt) got the girl, in Majhdhaar, Rahul Roy walks off with the heroine. Maybe I'm better off this way. Letting the other guy ride off into the sunset with the girl, I get the audience sympathy." And he also gives a lot of importance to having a rapport with his co-stars. "You have to make an effort to establish a rapport in the interest of the film. I have worked with Sunjay Dutt, Nana Patekar,(Khamoshi), Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Sunny Deol, Rahul Roy, Sanjay Kapoor and Jackie Shroff and have always got along with everyone." But whom does he like the best? He's at his candid best, "Sanjay Dutt, Sunny Deol, Aamir and Govinda." After Saajan came Rajkumar Santoshi's Andaz Apna Apna, in which Salman's comedy stole the masses. Karan Arjun casted this macho-man with top star Shahrukh Khan and the film was directed by Rakesh Roshan. The song Yeh Raat Aur Yeh Doori made people swing to its tune. Suraj Barjataya's Hum Apke Hain Koun opposite Madhuri Dixit was a super hit and Salman came in the race of capturing number one position.



Judwaa had Salman in double role, though the script was not good the movie was a superhit at box office due to excellent music and good dance numbers. Salman's brother Sohail Khan directed a movie called Auzaar which was a flop at box office. The film had no effect on Salman's career since he had Jeet in his pocket. Jeet proved to be successful and Salman acting talents were appreciated. Salman Khan is supposed to be one of the handsome hero in the industry having many good productions and directors so that he can give many hits and prove himself to be in the class of number one hero's. His Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya has done well and his Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai is doing average business. And all that success at the drop of a shirt. It works only if have a body worth the showing.



Kuch Kuch Hota Hai bagged him a Filmfare award for the Best Supporting Actor. He tried his hands on comedy with Biwi No.1, Dulhan Hum Le Jaayenge, and Chal Mere Bhai and was very successful. Now he is back in action with Tumko Na Bhool Paayenge.



His priorities in life? "My family, my girlfriend, my work, my friends," says he with a smile. And the ideal way of life? A sigh of contentment escapes his lips as he answers this one. "Sun in my face, coke in hand and no tensions in my head, as now." Today he doesn't seem to have any need for battles. He's calmed down. Happily wearing his stardom, he's friendly, intensely likeable, instantly chummy, the antithesis of the arrogant and moody star. The calm eye in the centre of the hurricane, that's movie- making. So where's the peril ?



He made a name for himself with soft-spoken, romantic roles. Lately it seems like Salman Khan's mission in life is to prove what a very good actor that makes him.



Son of scriptwriter Salim Khan (who co-wrote classics like Sholay, Deewar, Zanjeer, and Mr. India), Salman shot to fame as a gentle Romeo in the 1989 blockbuster Maine Pyar Kiya. He then went on to star in some of the biggest hits of the 90s, among them Hum Aapke Hain Koun...!, Karan Arjun, and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. In recent years, however, his drama off-screen proved more gripping than any movie. He moved from scrape to messy scrape with the law, the media, and his sometimes girlfriend, Miss World-turned-actress Aishwarya Rai. Columnists bemoaned his bad boy ways. Religious fundamentalists protested his taste in women (he was a Muslim; Aishwarya, a Hindu). But all along, diehard fans swore he was simply misunderstood.



Now he stands accused of manslaughter. And even those fans may reached their limit.



Fall 1998 marked the beginning of Salman's legal troubles. While in Jodhpur, Rajasthan to shoot the 'Mhare Hivda' song sequence for Yashraj's Hum Saath Saath Hain, he and several costars went hunting in the nearby Thar Desert. The group strayed onto a Bishnoi reservation, where Salman shot a black buck, a member of an endangered species that is illegal to hunt. The Bishnoi -- being a tribe that believes in the sanctity of all life, and not at all in the sanctity of film stars -- physically detained the actor, who was then thrown into jail by an unsympathetic magistrate. The scandal sent reporters scrambling for their pens -- which they then used to draw an indelible black mark next to the actor's name.



Media then turned their attention to his rocky relationship with Aishwarya Rai, whom he began to date after acting across from her in 1999's Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Rumors already existed claiming that Khan had physically abused a former girlfriend, Pakistani actress Somy Ali. Now the Rai family's rumored displeasure fueled similar tales regading his behavior with Aishwarya. The media gleefully featured reports about Salman's late night visits to Aishwarya's apartment: neighbors claimed he pounded on Aishwarya's door for hours, screaming futile, furious demands to be let inside.



Still, rumormongers had no proof until early 2002, when Aishwarya's parents filed a complaint with the Mumbai police, alleging that an intoxicated Khan broke windowpanes and furniture in Aishwarya's home and made threats against the Rai household in general. In the complaint, the Rais stated that they "should not be held responsible for any untoward incident involving the actor." (B4U TV, Jan 2002) Then an agitated Khan stormed onto the sets of Aishwarya' upcoming film with Abhishek Bachchan (Ramesh Sippy's Kuch Na Kaho). Khan pushed the actress to the ground, prompting intervention from spectators, who demanded he leave. Before departing, he backed his car into another -- Aishwarya's, by some reports -- leaving the witnesses shocked and, in the case of our fair heroine, bruised to boot. (B4U TV, Jan 2002)A similar incident allegedly occured months later, in fall 2002, on the sets of Aishwarya's film with Shahrukh Khan. According to the Hindustan Times, when Shahrukh Khan attempted to intervene in the couple's heated quarrel, he was verbally attacked by Salman, and the two have not spoken since (though, according to the newspaper, Salman has tried to tender an apology). The last incident -- which some say resulted in Rai being booted from the film -- prompted the actress to break with old habit and go public with her complaints. She told a reporter in September 2002, "Salman and I broke up last March, but he isn't able to come to terms with it... After we broke up, he would call me and talk rubbish. He also suspected me of having affairs with my co-stars. I was linked up with everyone, from Abhishekh Bachchan to Shah Rukh Khan. There were times when Salman got physical with me, luckily without leaving any marks. And I would go to work as if nothing had happened." (The Times of India, September 27, 2002)



[A sidebar: in defense of Aishwarya's claims, Khan certainly did not behave as though the relationship were over. In March, at a Mumbai nightclub called Olives, actor Rishi Kapoor's son, Ranbir, allegedly called attention to an attractive girl by commenting, "Wow, she's good. She reminds me of Aishwarya." Displeased to hear his lady love's name bandied so cavalierly, Salman then attacked Ranbir, stopping only when fellow actor Sanjay Dutt intervened and informed Salman whose son he was thrashing. Appalled, Salman forced a gold watch on Ranbir and sent him several designer shirts by way of apology -- but not before the press found out about the fracas. (Cineblitz, Mar. 2002)]



Not a week after Rai's interview went to press, Khan, returning home from a night on the town, ran his car over four men sleeping on a sidewalk. Two of them were seriously injured, and one died . Despite the fact that a policeman was in Khan's car (Khan had been receiving police protection due to death threats from the mafia), Khan absconded from the scene. He later claimed that he felt his life was threatened by the mob that formed after the collision, but some suspected he'd wanted to avoid a blood-alcohol test. To this, Khan responded that his bodyguard was the one driving anyway. The policeman present at the time of the accident claims otherwise, saying that Khan was the one driving. In an "officially unrelated" incident, the police have revoked their protection services for the actor.



Meanwhile, t he case has yet to go to trial, though many, remembering similar cases in the past, are skeptical that Khan will be held accountable.



On less serious fronts, one of the most popular criticisms leveled against Salman's acting is his tendency to remove his shirt at the earliest opportunity. The issue puts him on the defensive. "I realised that a good body was an asset and hence I cast my shirt off for the film. When you have a good body, why shouldn't you show it off, man? Walking around bare-chested is not new for me. Even in my house, I never wear a shirt. You will always find me in just shorts. If I am driving or walking down the road, and if I feel hot, I just take off my shirt and carry on. I do not care what people say. If you have a problem, get lost." (Rediff, June 1998)



With his longstanding policy of alternately shunning and antagonizing the press, Salman has offered an easy mark for journalists. But rumors of his arrogance anger him. In a June 1998 interview with Rediff, he vented:



"Call me arrogant or whatever you like. I am like this. I try and put forward myself very clearly. I am not scared of speaking the truth. I have been labelled arrogant by a section of the film press, especially those magazines which want me to run around them and accept whatever they write about me. If I call you names, if I write rubbish about your family, will you like it? It can spoil your relationships with your colleagues and family and also land you in a soup. Just because somebody wants to sell his magazine, does it mean I should allow them to make use of me?



"If I am so bad then why aren't people scared of me? Why do children run and come to me for autographs? Why don't parents hesitate to introduce me to their children? Do I behave like a real-life villain? The truth is that only those people are scared of me, who, when I was going through a low phase, wrote a lot of rubbish about me. I was rude to people because of their own mistakes. Most of them were journalists who indulged in yellow journalism, and I refused to give them interviews. "Since I stopped entertaining them, they wrote a load of bullshit about me. Why should I take all that shit? I am a man who has his principles and will adhere to it." (Rediff, June 1998)



Some would like to know what those principles are, exactly. The rest -- that shrinking circle of Salman-fans -- can wait eagerly for his star turn in the upcoming Hindi-English co-production, Marigold. The plot: when a B-grade Hollywood star is stranded in India, she's forced to accept a role in a Bollywood film to pay her way home. Unfortunately, she can't dance. Khan will star as the dance instructor who saves the day, opposite the as-yet-uncast American actress. The movie -- directed by Hollywood figure Willard Scott (Playing By Heart), with an edited version to play in mainstream American theaters -- will make Salman the first of Bollywood's leading men to brave the Loews and United Artists of American suburbia. Hopefully the man who used to be one of Bollywood's most loved stars can get his life back on track, because his career shows no sign of losing steam -- no matter what some might hope.



He's Bollywood's original brat. The media hates him; but crowds go wild at the very mention of his name. Girls swoon each time he flashes his bare torso on screen (which is quite often). Gossip rags work overtime fishing out juicy tidbits from his personal life: a brawl here, an alleged affair there….



And Salman Khan keeps mum through it all. The eldest son on writer Salim Khan (of Salim-Javed fame) claims he isn't here to please anyone, and doesn't care what the world thinks of him. He hates the press and loathes the idea of answering questions. But he's one of Hindi cinema's hottest selling stars, a safe bet on any day, both in India and overseas.



Yet, unlike most of his contemporaries, there seems to have been little plotting and planning in Salman's career. In fact, he made an nconventional debut as Farouque Shaikh's younger brother in 'Biwi Ho To Aisi (1988) and no one noticed.



The following year came 'Maine Pyaar Kiya', and his life changed forever. Sooraj Barjatya's syrupy romance turned Salman into a teen icon. Every producer with money in his pocket wanted to sign the star on the dotted line.



A decade later, there are die-hard loyalists who swear by him despite his alleged mood swings. Be it Sooraj Barjatya, Sanjay Bhansali or even David Dhawan. In fact, Salman is the only star who has struck a successful rapport with the plump director apart from Govinda, his eternal favourite. Remember the laugh-a-minute riot 'Judwaa' (1997)? Or for that matter 'Biwi No. 1', and their latest, 'Dulhan Hum Le Jayenge' which has also notched up a good opening.



Similarly, Barjatya won't hear of signing anyone else as his film's hero. And although Madhuri Dixit walked off with all the accolades for her mesmeric presence in 'Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!' (1994), it was to Salman's credit that he gracefully played second fiddle and let her hog the show.



Soon after playing the chocolate-boy hero in 'HAHK', Salman switched over to action-heavy flicks like Rakesh Roshan's 'Karan Arjun' and K K Singh's 'Veergati'. And gradually, the shirt started coming off more frequently.



so much so, many people believe it was Salman's pumped up body in the chart-topper "O, o jaane jaanaa" that helped brother Sohail's debut production 'Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya' (1998), set the box-office on fire.



But when it comes to performing, he's been at his best with director Sanjay Bhansali. 'Khamoshi' (1996) brought Salman's acting abilities to the fore for the first time. As the sensitive music composer who loves Annie (Manisha Koirala), the daughter of deaf and dumb parents, he displayed a remarkable degree of maturity.



Similarly, his Sameer Rosselini in 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam' was a thoroughly charming character. Just before the release of this film, rumours of his supposed liaison with Aishwarya Rai started circulating in tinsel town. But neither of them was willing to discuss the issue; they still aren't.



In what must be the ugliest time of his public life, Salman was arrested in Rajasthan towards the end of 1998, while he was shooting for Barjatya's 'Hum Saath Saath Hain'. He was allegedly charged for hunting down the endangered black buck deer.



After spending a few days in a local prison, he was released, much to the ndustry's relief. For, at that time, the total value of his films under production was in the region of Rs. 100 crore!



Through it all, Salman kept his mouth shut and came back with a vengeance scoring one hit after another. Neither his somewhat tarnished reputation, nor the bald patch at the back of his head made a dent in Salman's popularity. Obviously, nothing matters but the magic he continues to create on screen….















Source: SalmanKhan.net