Early life and ancestry
Salman Khan is the eldest son of screenwriter Salim Khan and his first wife Sushila Charak, who adopted the name Salma.[19][20] Born to a Muslim father and Hindu mother on 27 December 1965, Salman Khan was brought up in both faiths.[21] In 1981, when Salim married the actress Helen, the children's relationship with their father grew hostile and only recovered years later.[22]
Salman Khan's paternal great-grandparents are believed to be Alakozai Pashtuns from Afghanistan who immigrated to Indore State, Indore Residency (now in Madhya Pradesh), British India in the mid-1800s;[23][24][25][26] however, Jasim Khan in his biography of the actor states that his ancestors belonged to the Akuzai sub-tribe of the Yusufzai Pashtuns from Malakand in the Swat Valley of North-West Frontier Province, British India (present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan).[27] His grandfather Abdul Rashid Khan was a Deputy Inspector General of the Indore state who was awarded the Diler Jung award of the Holkar times.[28] Khan's mother is a homemaker,[29][30] whose father Baldev Singh Charak,[31] a Dogra Rajput,[32] comes from Jammu in Jammu and Kashmir[31][33] and whose Maratha mother comes from Maharashtra.[30] Khan can also speak Marathi, in addition to Hindi and English.[34] He has two brothers, Arbaaz Khan and Sohail Khan; and two sisters, Alvira Khan Agnihotri, who is married to actor-director Atul Agnihotri, and an adopted sister Arpita, who is married to actor Aayush Sharma.[35]
Salman finished his schooling at St. Stanislaus High School in Bandra, Mumbai, as did his younger brothers Arbaaz and Sohail. Previously, he studied at The Scindia School in Gwalior for a few years along with his younger brother Arbaaz.[36] He attended St. Xavier's College in Mumbai but dropped out.[37]