Salim Baig was born and brought up in
Mumbai and began his career in the entertainment industry as a model and then as a theatre artiste. Soon after competing in the Mr. Junior Mumbai competition, he received a call from director
Teja who subsequently cast him in the Telugu action film,
Jai (2004). The film's cinematographer
Ravi Varman introduced him to director
Gautham Vasudev Menon, who gave Salim his acting breakthrough, by casting him as a notorious gangster seeking revenge in the police drama
Gharshana (2004). The success of the film prompted him to use his character name of "Panda" as a suffix to his stage name. About his performance, a critic from Indiaglitz.com wrote "newcomer Saleem Baig, despite a poor voice (dubbed), as the cold-blooded, revenge-seeking Panda is first rate" and that "he never misses a trick in the book and triumphs in this significant role for him". The opportunity allowed him to work on more big budget Telugu films such as
Chiranjeevi's
Andarivaadu (2005),
Jagapati (2005) and
Andhrudu (2005) during the following year. Menon then cast him again in his first Tamil film, the police drama
Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu (2006) which had
Kamal Haasan in the lead role, Alongside
Daniel Balaji, Salim portrayed a homosexual medical student who turns into a psycho killer, and the film opened to critical and commercial acclaim. == Filmography ==