Salman Khan

Salman Khan is an Indian film actor and producer whose charitable work is carried out through the Being Human Foundation, a Mumbai-based trust he set up in 2007 to fund education and healthcare for people who cannot afford either.

Khan financed the foundation from his own money in its early years, then built a revenue model unusual among celebrity charities: rather than relying on appeals, he licensed the Being Human name to consumer goods and directed a share of the proceeds to the trust. A clothing line was launched at the HDIL Couture Week in 2009 through a tie-up with the cotton and linen manufacturer Cottonworld, followed by watches, jewellery, art sales and Being Human gold coins. In 2011 the foundation signed a long-term agreement with Mandhana Retail Ventures to design, manufacture and distribute the merchandise, which by 2017 was on sale at more than 600 points across fifteen countries. The same year he founded SKBH Productions, undertaking that profits from its films would go to the trust; its first release, the children's film Chillar Party, went on to win three National Film Awards.

The foundation's two declared focus areas are education and healthcare. It has paid for surgery for children born with congenital heart defects in partnership with the Fortis Foundation, and has worked with schools and education charities including Akshara High School and Aseema. In 2017 PVR Cinemas began inviting ticket buyers to add a two-rupee donation for the foundation. Not every venture succeeded: also in 2017 the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai threatened to blacklist the trust after a low-cost dialysis centre it had agreed to equip and staff in Bandra, on municipal premises, was not set up.

Khan has also used his standing for one-off interventions and public campaigns. In January 2012 he offered to pay the fines of around 400 prisoners across some 63 jails in Uttar Pradesh who had completed their sentences but remained inside because they could not pay. In 2015 he and co-producer Rockline Venkatesh announced that profits from Bajrangi Bhaijaan would go to farmers in distress. He was among nine public figures invited by the Prime Minister to front the Swachh Bharat cleanliness campaign at its launch in October 2014, and in 2016 agreed to campaign for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation against open defecation.[1][2]