Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan discharged from Mumbai hospital

Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan, who was hospitalised in Mumbai last month after suffering a brain haemorrhage, was discharged on Tuesday (March 17, 2026), sources said.

The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo, which scripted films such as Sholay, Deewar and Don with Javed Akhtar, was admitted to the ICU of Lilavati Hospital in Bandra on February 17.

A day after his admission, doctors at the hospital said Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage that had been tackled and he was put on ventilator support as a safeguard.

“He has been discharged. The discharge process has been completed, but he is still in the hospital,” a source told PTI on Tuesday.

Salim’s children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughters Alvira and Arpita, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, visited him regularly in the hospital. His long-time partner Akhtar had also visited him.

Other than Sholay, Deewar and Don, Khan and Akhtar also penned Trishul, Zanjeer, Seeta Aur Geeta, Haathi Mere Saathi, Yaadon Ki Baarat and Mr India.

Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Salim Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good-looking and confident that he would make a mark in the industry as an actor, but that did not happen.

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After struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.

He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema’s most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies, with most of them achieving blockbuster status.