It is almost impossible to talk about the glorious history of Hindi cinema without highlighting the contribution of the iconic Salim Khan. In the 1970’s the prolific writer—along with his friend Javed Akhtar—redefined the tenets of Bollywood through his captivating screenplays. He penned the narratives of several blockbusters such as Sholay and Zanjeer.

In fact, it was because of his contribution that the film fraternity fully realized the importance of writers in making a movie a success. Interestingly, Salim’s personal life was just as dramatic as his screenplays. And this can by, and large be attributed to the women who governed his life—Sushila Charak and of course Helen. Today, let us revisit the famed romantic life of ’s celebrated father.

Born in 1935 in Indore, Salim began his career in films as an actor at the age of 23. After being in the industry for just a few years, he tied the knot with Sushila Charak in 1964. Thereafter, she changed her name to Salma Khan.

“I courted her for almost five years before we tied the knot in 1964” he told a daily about his first marriage.

Interestingly, around the same time he began seeing popular actress and dancer Helen. While many would think that she was the “other woman” in his life, the reality was a bit different. Salim actually knew the cabaret queen even before his marriage. In fact, he even worked with her in films such as Teesri Manzil and Sarhadi Lootera.

Recalling his association with Helen, he said they were in a relationship for a long time . However, they decided to tie the knot in 1980.

“I won’t be able to say when exactly I fell in love with her or decided to marry her. After seeing her for quite a long time we decided to honour our relationship. We got married in 1980,” he said

As expected, this being his second marriage created ripples in his personal life. In fact, initially, even Helen felt guilty about the fact that he was already married. However, as she once said, they two lovers just could not “break off’.

“The fact that Salim was a married man did disturb me and I did felt guilty in the beginning” she added.

This strong bond between Helen and Salim can be attributed to the fact that the writer helped her during a difficult phase in life. Highlighting this aspect, she told journalist Shashi Balinga that Salim was someone who cared for her and never took advantage of her.

“Something about Salim set him apart from rest of the industry men. I respected him tremendously as he tried to help me out without trying to exploit me,” she added.

As such, by the time they married, it was pretty clear that Salim-Helen were truly made for each other. It, however, remained to be seen how his first wife Salma would react to the marriage. As expected, the ladies did share cold vibes. In fact, in an interview, Salma even emphasized that she was ‘depressed and disturbed’ by this development.

Similarly, the kids too were very hostile towards their stepmom. Highlighting this aspect, Salim once told a magazine that the kids were hostile as they simply followed in their mother’s footsteps.

“As kids they had their hostility. But they reacted the way their mother did. As I told you very honestly, it wasn't as if Salma accepted the relationship happily straightaway and thanked me for it or said, you deserve an Oscar for it. So at that time there was hostility from the children,’ he stated.

Luckily for Salim, this hostility was short-lived. After a while, the kids and Salma realised that Helen was a warm person and slowly but surely accepted her.

“They've all realised that Helen is a wonderful person, the children have realised that she's as good as their mother, They feel, daddy likes her, our mother likes her, we also like her, she's family. Now Salman will give his life for Helen. On Mother's Day, or any time he buys anything for Salma, Salman will always buy two of the same thing, always one for Helen too, “ she said.

In fact, movie buffs got strong proof of this when sometime back Salma gave Helen a warm hug.

As a result of these favourable developments, the Salim-Helen love story reached a happy ending and there was no dark side to it. Moreover, these days the 80-year-old writer’s life revolves around his wives and children. They do make one happy family.

However, living with two wives has been quite an experience for Salim. In an interview with DNA, he said he would not recommend it to anyone.

“Falling in love twice was a beautiful accident that happened to me. I have survived that accident! Though I wouldn’t recommend it as an ideal way of living. Normally it doesn’t work,” he quipped.

Credits :PINKVILLA

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