Long before Salim Khan was known as one half of the screenwriting team of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, he was a young performer looking for a foothold in Bombay. According to actor Shehzad Khan, that foothold came from his father: Ajit, the actor remembered for some of Hindi cinema’s most iconic antagonist roles in Mughal-e-Azam and Naya Daur.
In an interview reported by The Economic Times, Shehzad Khan said his father brought Salim Khan to Bombay and kept him in his house “like a little brother.” Ajit did not treat it as a passing favour. Before his death, Shehzad said, Ajit told his son to go to Salim Khan if he ever faced problems.
Nine years, fourteen credited films
The memory matters because it sharpens a chapter that is easy to compress in hindsight. Before he became a screenwriter, Salim Khan spent almost nine years trying to make it as an actor. He was credited in only 14 films, and he often went uncredited. His most prominent acting role came in the 1966 film Teesri Manzil.
The pivot was deliberate. In 1969 Salim Khan switched to screenplay writing, and the breakthrough followed with Haathi Mere Sathi, the Rajesh Khanna-starrer written with Javed Akhtar.
- Almost nine years as an actor, with limited recognition.
- 14 credited films in that acting run; Teesri Manzil was the standout.
- 1969, the year Salim Khan moved to screenwriting and set up a defining partnership.
Why the backstory changes the picture
Ajit, born Hamid Ali Khan, was already building a reputation as a compelling villain when he extended that support. The story places a human detail behind Bombay cinema’s working networks in the 1960s: a busy actor opening his home to a struggling newcomer who would later become one of Hindi cinema’s most celebrated screenwriters.
Shehzad Khan also recalled his own career through his father’s reactions. He entered films with Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak in 1988 and later appeared in Andaz Apna Apna. Ajit, he said, was unexpectedly unimpressed by the comic turn: he felt it undercut the serious persona he had carefully built. Shehzad Khan later appeared in the children’s television show Shaka Laka Boom Boom.
A second act with a clear before-and-after
The numbers make the transition starker than the usual shorthand suggests. Fourteen credited performances over almost a decade is a modest filmography, and even the Teesri Manzil credit sits within a career that often left him unnamed on screen. The move to writing in 1969 was not a gentle side step; it was a break from an identity that was not working.
That context helps explain why the story has lasted. Salim Khan’s later writing career is famous, but the attention to Ajit’s early support—and to the advice Ajit gave his son—shows the film industry’s memory still runs on relationships long after the box-office numbers fade.
Source: The Economic Times
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