[5] It was in his teens that he got to do a play for Yasmeen Ismail at the Arts Council clad in a burqa offering the audience with his monologue that people saw his inner lady come out.
Saleem took his early life education from Cadet College Hasan Abdal, and later went to Froebel's International School for A-Level.
[5] His breakthrough in the entertainment industry came when he started imitating his childhood heroine, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto,[2] from the way she talked to the way she dressed.
There he came to terms with Imran Aslam, a political satire writer who would tell him of a television channel in the pipeline, that would later be called Geo TV.
[5] Saleem's Benazir impressions were famous among his friends and Imran told him to take it to the airways with the television channel once it got aired.
With an extensive research into Pakistani cinema under his belt and ties to multiple television channels, the doctor suggested Saleem with the idea of having a dragged-up character as a host for a talk show.
[6] Saleem cross-dressed as a woman wearing a sari and asked influential guests provocative questions in his show Late Night with Begum Nawazish Ali.
[7] It was due to this use of gestures and acts that Begum earned a nasty reputation amongst the more fundamentalist ideals of the religious leaders (where some were even amused by his show)[8][9] but he had still ventured into the hearts and minds of the younger generations.
While talking of taboo topics like "sex" in Pakistan where it is strictly off-limits even trying to mention it, Saleem had been spared a backlash only because when on-the-air he is personifying a woman.
[12] In 2019, Saleem played a cameo role in Baaji,[13] in which in he brought back his Begum Nawazish Ali character.
[14] In March 2023, it was reported that a biopic based on Saleem's life is in the works, with Indian actress Mallika Sherawat being considered to play him.