I’ve reached the end! And this is just the basic stuff so you have a reference point if you need one. There’s a lot more I could write about Salman, but then his life is still going and his career is still going and you can read all those things in lots of other places. I just wanted to focus on the big personal lessor known highlights. And now I’ll give the general personal and professional timeline for reference.
December 27 1965: Salman Khan is born to Salim and Salma Khan
May 1 1971: Salim Khan and Javed Akhter’s first script together releases, Haathi Mere Saathi, their career is made.
1981: Salim marries Helen, Salma leaves him and enters a period of depression
c. 1982: Salma forgives Salim and moves back in with he and Helen, bringing with her her 4 children.
c. 1984: Salman starts dating a girl from the neighborhood.
c. 1986: Salman starts dating older model Sangeeta Bijlani
1988: Salman appears in his first movie, Biwi Ho To Aisi
c. 1988: Salim adopts Arpita, a baby he found in the street
1989: Salman gets the lead role in Maine Pyar Kiya, his career is made
1990: Salman’s first movie as a writer and star, Baaghi: A Rebel for Love, releases.
1991: Salman and Sangeeta’s engagement falls apart, Salman starts dating teenage model Somy Ali
1993: Salman’s second film as a writer and star, Chandra Mukhi, releases. An Indian reimagining of the Hollywood film “Big”.
1994: Salman reunites with his Maine Pyar Kiya director Sooraj Barjatya for Hum Aapke Hain Koun, which breaks the 19 year box office record set by his father’s film Sholay.
1996: Salman’s sister Alvira marries Atul Agnihotri.
1998: Salman’s brother Arbaaz marries Malaika Arora and brother Sohail marries Seema
1998: While on location for a film, Salman, Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, and Sonali Bendre are seen hunting a Blackbuck and arrested, then released on bail.
1999: Salman starts a relationship with Aishwarya Rai, causing Somy Ali to break up with him.
28 September 2002: Salman’s car drives up onto the sidewalk in front of a restaurant in the middle of the night, crushing 5 people and killing one of them.
April 1-7 2003: Viviek Oboroi gives a press conference accusing Salman of threatening him, 6 days later Aishwarya Rai issues a statement confirming abuse from Salman during their relationship.
August 15 2003: Tere Naam comes out, generally regarded as Salman’s greatest acting performance.
2005: Salman is seen publicly with teenage model Katrina Kaif, they are generally known to be dating.
2007: Salman founds his charitable organization/clothing line Being Human.
September 18 2009: Salman has had two years of flop films in his usual comedy/romance genres, now he releases something totally new and different, a straight action film, Wanted. It is an immediate hit and reinvents his star identity.
22 January 2010: Salman’s 3rd film as a writer, Veer, is released and flops.
2014: Photos of Katrina and her rumored boyfriend Ranbir on vacation together hit the internet, which confirms their relationship and that Salman and Katrina are officially broken up.
2014: Iulia Vantur, a Romanian model, is brought in to be exotic eye candy in Salman’s brother-in-law’s movie. Salman meets her and they start dating. She is 34 and already divorced from a Romanian music producer.
2015: Bajrangi Bhaijaan, the second film from Salman’s new production studio SKF (after the American film Dr. Cabbie) releases and sets box office records that are yet to be broken.
2019: Salman’s film Bharat sets box office records for opening day ticket sales and is well on it’s way to being the biggest hit of 2019.
dontcallitbollywood 
What do you think about the “too big to fail” argument re Salman? I.e. The court cases dragging on in part because the film industry needs him working in films. Unlike Sanjay Dutt, Salman being in jail for anything over 6 months would mean a serious hit to the industry revenue, jobs, output, etc. And with aamir and srk stepping back, and Salman stepping up with Bharat and Dabangg 3 this year, he’s making himself an even more critical piece of the industry.
Btw thank you for the detailed coverage on Salman, this whole series has been enlightening as to who and why he is.
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That’s a nice point you made, that essentially, Salman is the only active Khan left. He has 3 confirmed projects, and 2 almost confirmed rumors, while Aamir has only one movie announced and Shahrukh is yet to choose a single script.
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It’s another blessing/curse situation, I think.
Judge’s are supposed to take these kinds of things into consideration during sentencing, effect on family and community and so on. If Salman weren’t famous, just a regular guy with a thriving small business that depends on him and is integral to the community, then the judge might be more lenient taking that into account. But since he is famous, there is going to be pressure to not let him off easy.
On the other hand, if he were a failed actor and Salim Khan’s son, there would be no legitimate argument at all and he might have been sentenced to 5 years right away.
With Sanjay, I think they gave him extra long before he had to report to prison and occasional paroles during his sentence and stuff taking into account his family and business responsibilities. The prison authorities and the judge still got a little bad press for doing it, but most people didn’t notice. So far as I can tell, he got a little more parole time out of prison than another prisoner with two small children and health issues might have gotten, but it wasn’t extreme. And the Indian prison system offers a month long parole period every year to every prisoner, it’s not a special thing. If Salman was offered similar consideration, a couple months to finish off his current films before reporting to prison and the usual annual parole to take care of personal business (which every prisoner gets), I don’t think the affect on the industry would be that bad. But of course if he was given that, the press and public would riot and claim “special treatment” instead of acknowledging that that was normal treatment for the exact same reasons Salman needs it (except usually it is about selling some family land and visiting your aging grandmother instead of finishing off movies).
I am also sure that, along with his health issues, the pending threat of being in jail for 5 years is part of why Salman is filming movies at such a breakneck pace. If he is sentenced, I bet he would rush to finish as many films as possible, and then schedule them to release at a rate of one a year until he was back to work, instead of three a year.
On Thu, Jun 13, 2019 at 11:00 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Salim and Helen adopted Arpita not Salim by himself.
Re Iulia why “already” divorced?
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This series has been so illuminating. As you know, I mostly care only about Shah Rukh in this detail, but the love Salman gets and the fact that even is medium good films do really well when Shah Rukh’s excellent films (JHMS) don’t, makes him interesting to me. This explains A LOT of what has gone on. Also, I think I wrote this, but it kept saying it wouldn’t post so forgive me if its redundant. The brain thing he has is not caused by concussion but a twisted nerve. The medications for it are powerful but they do work (with side effects) so he probably has it under control now. But before it was, that still doesn’t explain violent behavior. I think that had more to do with his self medicating drinking. Anyway, this has been a very interesting series. Thank you. And continue having a great vacation.
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I very much liked the way you introduced his family background and the way you tried to give a balanced view on the incidents.
My take on the workload he deliberately carries on to assume: Committing to filmprojects is already generating expenses which would burden the respective people if he would have to go to jail, an argument for his lawyers to postpone verdicts again and again. As long as he works day-in, day-out, he would be safe.
In addition it serves his fan following, his own pockets and assures a good living for his family.
However, somehow I doubt that he will be able to keep this rhythm for long, physically.
Yes, Salman’s performance in Tere Naam was impressive but I really did not like some plot points…I largely prefer BB – in every way.
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Thank you very much Margaret for this series on Salman Khan! I appreciate that you have been neutral in your writing and presenting facts and information and allowing the readers to be their own judge. Will all these parts on Salman be made available on Hindi Film 101:Salman Khan for easier reading finding? It would help for tweeting purpose too!
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