Salman Khan was sentenced to five years in prison in April 2018. He was out on bail within two days, and the appeal against that conviction has still not been heard.
Eight years on it has been listed, adjourned, relisted and, in February 2026, handed to a different bench after the judge assigned to it recused himself. In that time Khan has carried three Eid releases, hosted sixteen consecutive seasons of a prime-time reality show, and lived under armed protection because of threats from a gang whose stated grievance is the same 1998 killing the unheard appeal concerns.
That is the shape of his public life, and it is more useful than a filmography. The case will not close and will not go away, and everything else happens around it.
| Full name | Abdul Rashid Salim Salman Khan |
| Born | 27 December 1965, Indore, Madhya Pradesh |
| Father | Salim Khan, screenwriter, of the Salim-Javed partnership |
| Debut | Biwi Ho To Aisi (1988); breakthrough with Maine Pyar Kiya (1989) |
| Television | Host of Bigg Boss since season four, 2010; sixteen consecutive seasons |
| Philanthropy | Being Human Foundation, founded 2007 |
| Most recent film | Maatrubhumi: May War Rest in Peace, 14 August 2026 |
| Legal status | Convicted 2018 in the blackbuck case, on bail, appeal undecided |
| Net worth is omitted. Figures in circulation are estimates from aggregator sites with no disclosed methodology, and none is documented. | |
Who Salman Khan is
Abdul Rashid Salim Salman Khan was born on 27 December 1965 in Indore, the eldest son of the screenwriter Salim Khan, one half of the Salim-Javed partnership that wrote much of 1970s Hindi cinema. He made his debut in Biwi Ho To Aisi in 1988 and became a star the following year with Maine Pyar Kiya.
What followed is close to four decades of leading roles, an unusual run in an industry that rarely sustains one. He is one of the three Khans, alongside Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan, who between them held the commercial centre of a Hindi film industry whose next generation is now arriving on streaming rather than in cinemas.
The commercial identity that matters most is the Eid release. Since Wanted in 2009 he has treated the festival as his slot, and Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Sultan and Kick all came through it. Sikandar took the Eid 2025 slot on 30 March, with Rashmika Mandanna.
The blackbuck case, precisely
In October 1998, during the shooting of Hum Saath Saath Hain near Jodhpur, two blackbucks were killed at Kankani. The blackbuck is protected under the Wildlife Protection Act.
In April 2018 a Jodhpur trial court convicted Khan and sentenced him to five years. His co-accused, among them Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Sonali Bendre and Neelam, were acquitted. He was granted bail almost immediately and has remained on bail ever since.
Two appeals have been pending in the Jodhpur bench of the Rajasthan High Court since: Khan’s, against his conviction and sentence, and the state’s, against the acquittals. They have not been decided. In February 2026 the matter was listed again, and Justice Baljinder Singh Sandhu recused himself, sending it to another bench.
Separately he faced two Arms Act and chinkara poaching cases arising from the same period. He was acquitted in both.
| Case | Outcome | Current status |
|---|---|---|
| Kankani blackbuck poaching, 1998 | Convicted April 2018, five years, Wildlife Protection Act | On bail. Appeal pending in the Rajasthan High Court, undecided |
| Mumbai pavement deaths, 2002 | Convicted May 2015, then acquitted by the Bombay High Court in December 2015 | State appeal against the acquittal pending in the Supreme Court |
| Chinkara poaching and Arms Act matters | Acquitted | Closed |
| Pan masala advertisement, consumer case | No finding against him | Stay granted by the NCDRC, June 2026 |
| Convicted, acquitted and charged are three different things and are frequently conflated in coverage of this subject. Only the 1998 blackbuck case has produced a conviction, and that conviction has not been tested on appeal. | ||
The 2002 case, which is routinely misreported
In September 2002 a vehicle mounted a pavement in Bandra, Mumbai, killing one man and injuring four others who were sleeping there. Khan was charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
A sessions court convicted him in May 2015 and sentenced him to five years. Seven months later, in December 2015, the Bombay High Court set that conviction aside and acquitted him, finding the prosecution had not proved its case, including on who was driving. Maharashtra appealed to the Supreme Court, and that appeal is pending.
He is therefore not a convicted man in the 2002 case. He is an acquitted one, with the acquittal under challenge. The distinction gets lost constantly and it is not a small one.
Why a gang wants him dead
The Bishnoi are a Rajasthani community whose religious tenets include the protection of animal life, and the blackbuck is sacred to them. Lawrence Bishnoi, currently imprisoned, has publicly identified the Kankani killing as the reason for his gang’s campaign against Khan.
That campaign has not been rhetorical. In April 2024 shots were fired outside Khan’s Mumbai residence. In October 2024 Baba Siddique, a politician and a friend of the Khan family, was shot dead in Mumbai, and the Bishnoi gang claimed responsibility. Khan has been under police protection for years and films under it.
This page does not describe his security arrangements. The threat is a matter of public record; the countermeasures are not something to publish.
Bigg Boss, and the second career
Khan has hosted the Hindi Bigg Boss since its fourth season in 2010. Season 19 ran from August to December 2025 and was his sixteenth consecutive season, won by Gaurav Khanna.
It is a genuinely unusual arrangement, and a hedge against an industry where even three-decade directing careers are closing out. Bigg Boss keeps him on television for four months a year, in a role that is neither acting nor straightforward presenting, and it has become as load-bearing for his public standing as the films.
Being Human
Khan founded the Being Human Foundation in 2007. It funds healthcare and education work, principally paediatric cardiac surgery, and is financed in part by a clothing line that carries the same name and licenses his signature artwork.
The foundation is the part of his public life least examined by the press, which cuts both ways. It has run for nearly two decades and its retail arm is visible in Indian malls; independent scrutiny of its accounts and outcomes is thin.
What is happening now
Maatrubhumi: May War Rest in Peace, directed by Apoorva Lakhia, released on 14 August 2026. Khan plays Colonel Santosh Babu of the 16 Bihar Regiment, the officer killed in the 2020 Galwan Valley clash with Chinese troops. The film was announced as Battle of Galwan, was scheduled for April 2026, and was pushed back for an extended reshoot before landing on the Independence Day weekend.
In June 2026 the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission stayed a Jaipur commission’s order for a forensic test of his signature in a misleading pan masala advertisement case. His defence is that the product he endorsed was cardamom rather than gutkha, which is the standard argument in Indian surrogate-advertising disputes.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 27 December 1965 | Born in Indore |
| 1988–1989 | Debuts in Biwi Ho To Aisi; becomes a star with Maine Pyar Kiya |
| October 1998 | Two blackbucks killed at Kankani during the Hum Saath Saath Hain shoot |
| September 2002 | Vehicle mounts a Bandra pavement, killing one man |
| 2007 | Founds the Being Human Foundation |
| 2009–2010 | Wanted begins the Eid-release run; starts hosting Bigg Boss in season four |
| May and December 2015 | Convicted in the 2002 case, then acquitted by the Bombay High Court |
| April 2018 | Convicted in the blackbuck case, sentenced to five years, bailed within days |
| April 2024 | Shots fired outside his Mumbai residence |
| October 2024 | Baba Siddique shot dead; the Bishnoi gang claims responsibility |
| 30 March 2025 | Sikandar released for Eid |
| August–December 2025 | Hosts Bigg Boss 19, his sixteenth consecutive season |
| February 2026 | Blackbuck appeal relisted; the assigned judge recuses himself |
| 14 August 2026 | Maatrubhumi: May War Rest in Peace released |
| Dates reflect court records and contemporaneous reporting. The blackbuck appeal remains undecided at the time of writing. | |
What this page does not establish
The appeal is the largest of them. Nobody knows when the Rajasthan High Court will decide, or how, and a recusal in February 2026 pushed the timetable back again. Anyone writing that he has escaped the case is wrong; so is anyone writing that he is a fugitive from a live sentence. He is a convicted man whose conviction has not been tested on appeal for eight years, which is a third thing.
Maatrubhumi’s commercial result is not settled either. It opened on a competitive Independence Day weekend and this page carries no collection figure, because the reliable ones are not in yet and the unreliable ones are everywhere.
And the Being Human Foundation’s actual output has not been independently audited in anything published. Its stated purpose is clear. Its results are asserted rather than demonstrated.
Salman Khan: frequently asked questions
What is Salman Khan’s most recent film?
Maatrubhumi: May War Rest in Peace, released on 14 August 2026, in which he plays Colonel Santosh Babu of the 16 Bihar Regiment. It was announced under the title Battle of Galwan.
Was Salman Khan convicted in the blackbuck case?
Yes. A Jodhpur trial court convicted him in April 2018 under the Wildlife Protection Act and sentenced him to five years. He was granted bail within days and his appeal, along with the state’s appeal against his co-accused’s acquittals, is still pending in the Rajasthan High Court.
What happened in Salman Khan’s 2002 hit-and-run case?
He was convicted by a sessions court in May 2015 and acquitted by the Bombay High Court in December 2015, which found the prosecution had not proved its case. Maharashtra’s appeal against that acquittal is pending in the Supreme Court.
Why does the Bishnoi gang target Salman Khan?
The blackbuck is sacred to the Bishnoi community, and Lawrence Bishnoi has publicly cited the 1998 Kankani killing as the reason. Shots were fired outside Khan’s Mumbai home in April 2024, and the gang claimed the October 2024 killing of the politician Baba Siddique.
How many seasons of Bigg Boss has Salman Khan hosted?
Sixteen consecutive seasons of the Hindi edition. He began with season four in 2010; season 19 ran from August to December 2025.
When was Salman Khan born?
27 December 1965, in Indore. He is the eldest son of the screenwriter Salim Khan.
What is Being Human?
A foundation Khan started in 2007, funding healthcare and education work with an emphasis on paediatric cardiac surgery, supported in part by a clothing brand of the same name.
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