Salman Khan

1988–89: Debut and breakout

Khan worked as a model, advertising products such as Limca (a soft drink), before landing his first film role, in Biwi Ho To Aisi (“A Wife Should Be Like This”), in 1988. His breakout role was in the 1989 romantic film Maine Pyar Kiya (“I Have Loved”), in which his performance as a young man who triumphs in love despite family disapproval earned him a Filmfare Award for best male debut. His name in the film, Prem (“Love”), was to become something of a lucky charm for him, and he played characters with that name in subsequent hit films. The songs from Maine Pyar Kiya, such as “Kabootar Ja Ja Ja” (“Fly Away, Pigeon!”), “Dil Deewana” (“Crazy Heart”), and “Mere Rang Mein Rangne Wali” (“The One Who Is Colored in My Colors”), were also massive hits with audiences and continue to be counted as some of the most popular romantic songs from Khan’s filmography.

1994: Stardom with Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!

Despite the acclaim he received for his role in Maine Pyar Kiya, Khan’s career coasted until the 1994 release of the film Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (HAHK; “Who Am I to You?”). He was cast as Prem Nath, whose boyish charm, innocence, and love for Nisha Choudhury (played by Madhuri Dixit) quickly captivated the hearts of millions. Khan and Dixit’s on-screen chemistry was also an absolute crowd-pleaser, and the film catapulted to blockbuster status that year.

According to the movie business tracker Box Office India, HAHK became the highest-grossing Hindi film of all time, breaking a 19-year-old record held by the Bollywood classic Sholay (1975; “Embers”). It is considered one of Bollywood’s landmark productions and a definitive family drama. HAHK held the box office record until 2001, when it was dethroned by Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (“Rebellion: A Love Story”), starring actor Sunny Deol. Khan capitalized on the HAHK’s success to take a wide variety of new roles.

1994–2010: Projects and blockbusters after HAHK

Khan experimented with several different genres after HAHK. He appeared in the slapstick comedies Andaz Apna Apna (1994; “Everyone Has Their Own Style”) and No Entry (2005); the action film Karan Arjun (1995); and romances, such as Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998; “Something Happens”), for which he won a Filmfare Award for best supporting actor, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999; “Straight from the Heart”), Hum Saath-Saath Hain (1999; “We Stand United”), and Tere Naam (2003; “In Your Name”). In 1999 three of Khan’s films ranked among Bollywood’s highest-grossing films of that year at the box office: Hum Saath-Saath Hain, Biwi No. 1 (“biwi” means wife; the film is one in a series with “number one” in the title, directed by David Dhawan), and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.

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Khan’s career was supercharged in 2009 by the record-breaking hit film Wanted, an action thriller that, though criticized for a weak plot and poor dialogue, provided Khan with a strong comeback from the lackluster box-office performances of his mid-2000s films. In 2010 Khan landed the starring role of Chulbul (“Robin Hood”) Pandey, a larger-than-life police officer, in the blockbuster Dabangg (“Fearless”). Highly entertaining, the film took audiences by storm. At this point in Khan’s career his popularity became such that his presence in a film could guarantee a certain level of box office success.

2010–present: Bigg Boss and later movies

In 2010 Khan hosted the fourth season of Bigg Boss, an Indian take on the popular reality show Big Brother, and he has continued in that role in subsequent seasons. In 2012 the actor reprised his role as Chulbul Pandey in Dabangg 2, which was also a blockbuster. He returned to the franchise in 2019 with Dabangg 3, but the film did not fare well at the Indian box office. Khan’s first two Tiger films—Ek Tha Tiger (2012; “There Once Was a Tiger”) and Tiger Zinda Hai (2017; “Tiger Is Alive”)—in which Khan plays Avinash Singh Rathore, an Indian intelligence officer, were very successful at the box office. Tiger Zinda Hai broke opening-weekend records and became one of the highest-grossing Hindi films of all time, going on to win best action movie at the Filmfare Awards. The Tiger franchise is set in a spy universe created by the production company Yash Raj Films; the universe also contains interconnected films starring Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan.

In 2015 Khan starred in Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015; “Brother Bajrangi”), in which he plays the role of Pawan Kumar, a devotee of the Hindu deity Hanuman (also known as Bajrang Bali, giving the film its title), who helps a lost little girl from Pakistan find her way back home. The film did exceptionally well at the national and overseas box office and was the highest-grossing Hindi film worldwide that year. Along with Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!, Bajrangi Bhaijaan has been listed as an all-time blockbuster by Box Office India. Khan had another release in 2015, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, which too did well. Some of Khan’s later movies—Race 3 (2018), Dabangg 3 (2019), and Radhe (2021)—have received negative reviews. In 2023 the third installment of the Tiger franchise, Tiger 3 came out and was a commercial success.

Blackbuck poaching case

In the 1990s and 2000s Khan gained a “bad boy” reputation in the Bollywood press. He was in multiple physical conflicts with paparazzi, leading to some publications refusing to photograph him in 2014. In 1998, while filming the movie Hum Saath-Saath Hain in the state of Rajasthan, Khan was accused of killing two blackbucks (Antilope cervicapra) and an Indian gazelle (Gazella bennetti), locally known as chinkara. Both animals are protected species in India.

The incidents eventually led to four different court cases under India’s Wildlife Protection Act and Arms Act: two of them were overturned on appeal in 2016; he was acquitted of one in 2017; and he was sentenced to five years in jail for another in 2018. Khan spent a few days in a Jodhpur jail and was released on bail while his appeals—still pending as of 2024—were ongoing. The same year Khan was sentenced, he received an open threat from Indian gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, who hails from the Bishnoi community, which considers blackbucks sacred. The actor’s security has been bolstered ever since.

The hit-and-run case

Khan was found guilty in 2015 of a deadly hit-and-run accident. The case originated in a 2002 arrest when Khan was accused of having run over five people sleeping on a street in Mumbai, injuring four and killing one. In May 2015 a court found Khan guilty of culpable homicide, including driving under the influence of alcohol, and sentenced him to five years in prison. Later that year the conviction was overturned on appeal because of insufficient evidence.

Sultan comment controversy

In 2016 Khan found himself embroiled in yet another controversy. When asked at a press conference about his experience of playing the role of a wrestler in the movie Sultan (2016), the actor remarked that he felt like a “raped woman” after the physically demanding shoots. Khan attempted to take back his comment, but it elicited widespread public outrage. India’s National Commission for Women sent him a letter seeking an apology from the actor and later summoned him, deeming the actor’s reply to the notice “unsatisfactory.”