Salim Khan describes falling in love with his second wife Helen as an emotional accident; says, “Mera koi aisa iraada nahi tha”

Salim Khan gets candid at The Invincibles with Arbaaz Khan, a talk show. He talks about his second marriage with Helen.

By Bollywood Hungama News Network -

February 3, 2023 - 4:00 PM IST

Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan fell in love with actress Helen in 1981 and married her. However, he was already married to Salma Khan and was the father of their three children, Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan, and Sohail Khan, at the time. In a subsequent conversation, Salim stated that falling in love with her was not his objective initially. Arbaaz Khan interviewed his father, legendary screenwriter Salim Khan, about his life, relationships, and profession.

Salim Khan describes falling in love with his second wife Helen as an emotional accident; says, “Mera koi aisa iraada nahi tha”

Arbaaz Khan discusses the lives of a few Hindi film industry heavyweights in his forthcoming talk show. The actor-producer also talks to his father, screenwriter Salim Khan, about certain personal elements of his life, such as his second marriage to actress-dancer Helen in 1981. Arbaaz admits that while he may have been upset at his father for this, he has come to see that introducing Helen into his life and family was after all not a bad decision.

Salim describes his encounter with Helen as an "emotional accident" in a new promo for the chat programme, The Invincibles with Arbaaz Khan on Bollywood Bubble. She was in a pickle since she was out of job. He said, "She had reached an age where it was difficult to those kinds of roles anymore. She came to me and our work was going really well." He further added, “She was young, I was also young. Mera koi aisa iraada nahi tha. Maine sirf madat ke liye kiya tha. (I didn't intend for it to happen. I was just trying to help her out). She started respecting my gestures and attitude. I always say that love is rooted in respect. You cannot love anybody who you don't respect."

Arbaaz also spoke about Salim's love affair with Salma Khan, to which he warmly recalled that they would visit one other secretly and that when he eventually went to meet her father, the entire neighbourhood flocked to see him. He said, “Chhup ke milte the idhar udhar kahin. Maine kaha ki nahi, I would like to meet your parents. Jab main gaya, sab mere ko dekhne ke liye aa gaye the jaise zoo mein koi janwar aaya hai naya ki dekhne chalte hain (We would meet secretly. I said I want to meet your parents. When I went there, everyone came to see me like I was an attraction at a zoo).”

He further added, “Shuru mein jab hum nakaam log the, struggle kar rahe the, toh bilkul ek the. Koi humare aur dost nahi the, hum hi baith ke subah se shaam tak kaam karte the. Shaam ko bhi saath the, raat ko khana bhi saath hota tha. 24 mein se 15-16 hours toh saath hi hote the (In our earlier unsuccessful days, we were struggling, we were one. We did not have any other friends; we would work together from morning to evening. We would even have dinner together. Out of 24, we would spend 15-16 hours together).”

Salim also said that he confessed his affair to his first wife, Salma, since Helen didn't have anybody in her life and he wanted to help her as well. He said, “[Salma] didn't say you did something good, you should receive an award for it. This is an emotional accident. Kisi ke sath bhi ho sakta hai (It can happen to anybody). Then I managed it.”

Arbaaz inquired about how his children assisted him in maintaining this bond once Helen entered their life. To this Salim replied, “I sat down my children and told them this is the problem. But I want to tell you one thing; I know that you can't love Helen aunty as you love your mother. But I want the same respect (for her).”

Arbaaz said that they had challenges and concerns at the time, but “As we grew older, we saw that we had situations in our life that we could have done the same thing. Wohi cheez jinse mujhe mere baap se naarazgi ho sakti thi, woh meri zindagi mein aa rahi hai, aur time bahut bada factor hota hai, cheezon ko samajne mein (The same thing that I could be angry about with my father, the same is happening in our lives and time is a big factor in understanding them).”

Helen, Javed Akhtar, Waheeda Rehman, Shatrughan Sinha, and Mahesh Bhatt will all be interviewed on The Invincibles with Arbaaz Khan. The entire episode with Salim is now available on the Bollywood Bubble YouTube channel.

Also Read: Javed Akhtar speaks about his fallout with Salim Khan; says, “Mental rapport we had, got broken”