Salim Ghouse is a film, television and theatre actor, theatre director and martial artist. He has acted in several Indian languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. In 1989, he was portrayed as the villain in the Tamil film, Vetri Vizha, directed by Prathap Pothan as the rival to Kamal Haasan. He starred alongside Mohan Lal in the classic Malayalam movie, Thazhvaram, directed by Bharathan. In 1993 he did a villain role in Mani Ratnam's film, Thiruda Thiruda, also acted alongside with Madhuri Dixit and Shahrukh Khan in the 1997 film, Koyla, then in 2009 he acted in Vettaikaran.