In the early 2000s, Bollywood actor Salman Khan was battling a string of successive flops. He had explored all sorts of genres – from romance to action to drama to comedy – but nothing worked; whatever he touched crumbled. Failures are demoralising for any artist but this actor waddled through that grim phase for a prolonged period of time. While he was struggling to set afloat a sinking career, his girlfriend of two years walked out on him. As he tried in vain to win his ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’ co-star back, he also attracted a lot of negative coverage from mainstream media channels who accused Khan of harassing other actors, creating a ruckus on film-sets and assaulting his girlfriends. His fan-base began to dwindle. Alcohol took control of his life. And the actor began to lose his hair.

In September 2002, Salman Khan, in an inebriated state, allegedly ran his Toyota Landcruiser over pavement dwellers killing a man in the process. He spent seventeen days in police custody and later admitted to being haunted by that accident-memories in an interview to the BBC in late 2002. His career hit rock bottom in the wake of that incident. Salman’s last film at that time was David Dhawan’s ‘Yeh Hai Jalwa’ which released in July 2002 and bombed at box office. No major banners came forward to cast him. Film pundits had written him off.

In August 2003, after spending about twelve months jobless as he himself admitted, Salman Khan got a new lease of life with Sathish Kaushik-directed ‘Tere Naam’, a remake of 1999 national-award-winning Tamil blockbuster ‘Sethu’. The actor’s portrayal of a ruffian named Radhe who falls madly in love with a first-year student in his college only to end up in an asylum was widely lauded by critics and hailed as the Salman’s finest performance to date. The film was a commercial success and took the actor back into the reckoning. But bad luck gripped him yet again with a slew of flops like Garv, Phir Milenge (critically-acclaimed) and Dil Ne Jise Apna Kaha (remake of Telugu film ‘Nee Thodu Kavali’) in 2004, Lucky, Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya and Kyun Ki (remake of Malayalam film ‘Thalavattam’) in 2005, Saawan, Shaadi Karke Phas Gaya Yaar and Jaan-E-Mann in 2006, his first international venture Marigold in 2007 followed by God Tussi Great Ho and Yuvvraj in 2008. The only glimmer of hope during this lean period was the multi-starrer No Entry (2005) (remake of Tamil film ‘Charlie Chaplin’) and Partner (2007). Around the same time, Salman Khan was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia, a nerve disorder that causes frequent intervals of electric-shock like pain on the face. 

The film that catapulted Salman Khan into stardom was Prabhudeva’s ‘Wanted’, a remake of the superhit Telugu film ‘Pokiri’.  Salman’s one-liners in the film (some of them were borrowed from Rajnikanth’s films) became an instant hit with the masses. Made with 30 crore Indian Rupees (~ £3 million), the film grossed thrice its budget and contributed in resuscitating Bollywood which had suffered a loss of 700 crore Rupees (~ £70 million) in 2009.

After few more duds like Mein Aur Mrs Khanna, London Dreams and Veer, Salman stormed with the iconic character of Chulbul Pandey in Abhinav Kashyap’s Dabangg (2010). The film created history and minted over 200 crores (~ £20 million) at the box office. The spectacular success of the ‘Dabangg’ ensured that even Salman’s subsequent 2011 films Aneez Bazmee’s Ready (remake of Telugu film ‘Ready’) and Siddique’s Bodyguard (remake of Malayalam film ‘Bodyguard’), which were panned by critics, went on to rake over 100 crore Rupees (~ £10 million) setting a new trend in the industry. Then came Kabir Khan’s spy-thriller Ek Tha Tiger (2012) and shattered all box office records followed by a sequel to Dabangg which again crossed the 100-crore Rupees (~ £10 million) barrier comfortably despite mediocre reviews. Remakes of south-films have contributed to most of Salman’s success and therefore, it’s no surprise that he signed up for yet another remake titled ‘Kick’ in 2014 and that went on to gross 400 crore Rupees (~ £40 million) against its original budget of 140-crore Rupees (~ £14 million).

In 2015, Salman played an offbeat role of an innocent and pious Hindu man who stumbles upon a missing young and mute Pakistani girl and takes it upon himself to ensure that the girl meets her family in Pakistan, the journey to which forms the narrative of the film. Directed by Kabir Khan, Bajrangi Bhaijaan gained huge critical and commercial success upon its release and took Salman Khan’s stardom to a whole new level. Made with a budget of 90 crore Rupees (~ £9 million), the film went on to gross 900 crore Rupees (~ £90 million) worldwide and became the highest grossing Indian film at that time. Later that year, Khan did a family drama “Prem Ratan Dhan Payo”, which despite lacklustre reviews went on to gross 430 crore Rupees (~ £43 million) against its original budget of 180-crore Rupees (~ £18 million).

In 2016, Khan did yet another offbeat film called “Sultan” where he played a middle-aged wrestler trying to make a comeback to the sport and represent his country at the Olympics. Sultan was also a hugely successful venture and grossed 620 crore Rupees (~ £62 million) in its worldwide box office revenue.

Continuing his trend of offbeat films, Salman once again collaborated with Kabir Khan, his “Ek Tha Tiger” and “Bajrangi Bhaijaan” director, for a film called Tubelight in 2017, which was an adaptation of the 2015 American film Little Boy. Despite mixed reviews, Tubelight grossed 200 crore Rupees (~ £20 million) – twice its production costs. Salman followed that with “Tiger Zinda Hai”, a sequel to his “Ek Tha Tiger”, and emerged successfully yet again.

In 2018, Salman featured in the third installment of the action-thriller film “Race” alongside Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol and Jacqueline Fernandez. Despite poor reviews, the film grossed twice its production costs by mainly riding on Khan’s stardom.

In February 2018, Salman Khan started a talent management company called Uniword Being Talented (UBT), a few months after he severed ties with Matrix Talent Agency who had been managing the actor since 2008. In November that year, Khan’s UBT forged a partnership with Big Bang Media Ventures, the parent company of KWAN Talent Management, one of the leading talent management companies in Bollywood. Following KWAN’s merger with UBT, Salman Khan’s company gained access to KWAN’s talent, its entire infrastructure and services and also its affiliate businesses in the rest of the country. KWAN’s rival company, Cornerstone, is owned by Bunty Sajdeh, whose sister Seema Sajdeh is married to Salman Khan’s brother Sohail Khan.

Collaborating again with his Sultan and Tiger Zinda Hai director Ali Abbas Zafar, Salman Khan returned to the silver screen 2019 with “Bharat” where he played the eponymous character who gets separated from his family during the 1947 partition between Indian and Pakistan, and spends the rest of his life searching for his missing sister and waiting for his dad to return. Bharat was yet another successful venture for Khan. Later that year, Khan released the third installment of his “Dabangg” and once again raked in the moolah despite poor reviews.

Salman Khan now commands the highest fan following in the country and is touted to be most bankable star of Bollywood. His films are declared successful even before their release. His production company and talent management company are also very successful and Khan is said to hold tremendous clout in Bollywood and related business circles. His charity venture, Being Human Foundation, that the actor established in 2008, has a presence across 15 countries and also associated with his successful clothing label, also called “Being Human”, which reportedly has 600 selling points across the world. Khan, however, downplays his success and stays grounded despite his soaring popularity. After all, he knows what failure is and has come a long way from 2000. Salman Khan’s fascinating story, if dramatised into a Bollywood film, is bound to set a new record of sorts as the man himself.