Shah Rukh Khan's is a life less ordinary. With no godfathers in the industry, the boy-next-door rose from nowhere to become one of the biggest Bollywood superstars.
20 years and 70 films later, we're taking you on a journey through his life.
Shah Rukh Khan's is a life less ordinary. With no godfathers in the industry, the boy-next-door rose from nowhere to become one of the biggest Bollywood superstars.
20 years and 70 films later, we're taking you on a journey through his life.
Shah Rukh Khan was born in 1965 to Taj Mohammed Khan and Lateef Fatima in New Delhi. His father was an activist during India's struggle for freedom and his mother was the adopted daughter of renowned freedom fighter Major General Shah Nawaz Khan, who served in Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's Indian National Army. He has an elder sister named Shehnaz.
SRK studied at St. Columba's School in New Delhi and was an all-rounder student. He graduated in Economics from Delhi's Hansraj College. He enrolled for a Mass Communication course at Jamia Millia Islamia but dropped out to pursue his celluloid dreams.
Shah Rukh Khan became a part of Barry John's Theatre Action Group and first made his mark on the small screen. His leading role as Commando Abhimanyu Rai in the 1988 TV serial Fauji made him instantly popular. His next TV show, Circus, was a big hit too.
SRK's big break came in the 1992 film Deewana where he starred opposite Divya Bharti. The role won him the Filmfare Best Debut (Male) Award.
Chamatkar, opposite Urmila Matondkar, was a damp squib at the box office but the lovable Chaplinesque role of Raju in Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman was next and the only way for SRK was up.
It was Baazigar, which cast him in an anti-hero role, that proved to be SRK's breakthrough film. The runaway hit earned him a first Filmfare Best Actor Award and we fell in love with the SRK-Kajol jodi forever.
Shah Rukh continued his negative streak with elan in Darr, where he played a psychopath obsessed with Juhi Chawla's character. The actor was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role.
After this brief affair with the 'dark side' SRK returned to the role of the chocolate boy in Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa. His portrayal of the academically challenged son out to find love and a career in music, was absolutely delightful and showed a new side of the actor to the audience.
While he was nominated for the Filmfare Best Actor Award he managed to win the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance.
On 25 October 1991, Shah Rukh married his long time girlfriend Gauri Chibber. Though Gauri's parents were initially opposed to the marriage, Shah Rukh Khan eventually won them over.
Once camera-shy, Gauri Khan today is a frequently photographed fashion icon. The couple have two beautiful kids together, Aryan and Suhana.
Meanwhile, SRK's dream run at the box office hit a speedbreaker when a number of his movies, Zamana Deewana, Guddu, Oh Darling! Yeh Hai India, Ram Jaane and Trimurti, disappointed fans.
But 1995 changed Bollywood and SRK's status as a maybe-star forever. Epic love story in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge had us all mushy and teary-eyed and it re-defined SRK as the most revered romantic hero of Bollywood. Shah Rukh Khan's character Raj was matched emotion for emotion by the charmingly disarming Simran, played by Kajol.
The film won a staggering 10 Filmfare Awards, including the Best Actor Award for Shah Rukh Khan.
In a recent interview with NDTV, SRK said that he owes his career to all his actresses. In the mid 90s, Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla were Shah Rukh's heroines of choice. While he shot for Koyla (1997), in the picturesque hills of Arunachal Pradesh, with Madhuri.
The same year, the Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman team brewed some more magic with Yes Boss opposite Juhi, which was a big hit at the time.
With Yash Chopra's Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), King Khan was back to doing what he excelled in, romance. Starring Madhuri and Karisma Kapur, the film was a blockbuster hit with its heady cocktail of music, dance and romance.
Shah Rukh won yet another Best Actor Filmfare Award for the film.
In 1998, Shah Rukh starred in a double role in the comedy Duplicate (nominated for a Filmfare in a Negative role) and played a journalist who loves a terrorist in Mani Ratnam's Dil Se.
But the film that took Shah Rukh to even more dizzying heights was Karan Johar's love triangle Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. The college romance-coming of age film won SRK another Filmfare Best Actor Award.
SRK scratched his comedy itch again with Badshah (1999), an average success before turning producer with Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani (2000).
In 1999, SRK stepped into a new role along with actress Juhi Chawla and director Aziz Mirza by setting up a production house, Dreamz Unlimited. The company produced the actor's three films, Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani, Asoka and Chalte Chalte. The first two were box office flops while third was received well.
However, in 2004, SRK and Gauri took over the company and reinvented it as Red Chillies Entertainment.
Shah Rukh was back in top gear on romance highway with Mohabbatein and playing Raj (Aryan) Malhotra only ensured that it went the DDLJ way.
He received the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance in the film.
King Khan delved into history with Santosh Sivan's brilliantly shot Asoka (2001). However, the film failed to do well and at best courted controversy while it lasted.
SRK was joined by a star-cast of Big B, Jaya Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor and Kajol in Karan Johar's tearjerker Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. Despite the over-abundance of superstars, SRK's performance was acknowledged as one of the strongest in the movie which became a blockbuster hit.
In 2002, Shah Rukh Khan played the lovelorn Devdas, in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's classic. The tragic hero role fetched SRK another Filmfare Award for Best Actor.
Nikhil Advani's Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003) was seen by many as a modern-day Anand where SRK portrayed the role that was played Rajesh Khanna in the 1971 hit film.
With Ashutosh Gowariker's Swades (2004) SRK swerved a little off the mainstream. Often accused of playing larger than life versions of himself, this was the film that proved Shah Rukh Khan had serious acting chops and not just his charisma to rely on. The film received critical acclaim but did not match upto SRK's earlier successes at the box office. It was only much later, with Chak De! India (2007), that he made another attempt at method-cinema. This time it worked wonders and he got rave reviews and a Filmfare Best Actor Award for his performance.
Shah Rukh Khan's good friend, Farah Khan made her directorial debut with Main Hoon Na (2004) starring him in the lead role as an undercover army officer on a double mission from his dead father. It was also the first film to be produced by Shah Rukh Khan's rebranded production house, Red Chillies Entertainment. It was a runaway hit.
Shah Rukh Khan and Yash Chopra have always created magic and Veer Zaara was no exception. The legendary director brought out the best of SRK as the actor played a young army officer and a prisoner.
Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006) was an untypical Karan Johar film. The director chose the difficult subject of extra-marital affairs and SRK put in a commendable performance as the cynical Dev Saran who can't deal with his wife's successful career and falls for another woman. The film emerged as India's biggest grosser in the overseas market.
After co-starring with Amitabh Bachchan in a number of films, it was time for SRK to do a Big B. He played the lead role in (2006). Farhan Akhtar's remake of the 1978 hit Don starring Amitabh Bachchan, though revamped, made SRK stand on his own ground and his return to a negative role was acclaimed.
In 2007, after Big B decided to call it quits as a host of the hugely successful game show Kaun Banega Crorepati, no one knew who would replace him. It was SRK who stepped in to his shoes.
But as luck would have it, Big B is back in the game, quite literally so and SRK was back on the show recently, only this time to promote his upcoming film, Jab Tak Hai Jaan.
In 2007, Farah Khan made her return to the director's chair with Om Shanti Om starring Shah Rukh Khan. The SRK appeal was amped up with a six-pack to die for.
SRK witnessed a downward fall in his career with Aditya Chopra's Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008). Co-starring newbie Anushka Sharma, the film earned SRK another Filmfare nomination but left audiences cold.
In 2008, Shah Rukh also became the owner of one of the Indian Premier League teams, Kolkata Knight Riders.
My Name Is Khan (2010) marked the comeback of SRK-Kajol jodi and the film was slated to be a hit from that point on. Add to that a crossover drama and despite multiple controversies and a real life airport fiasco, SRK had the last laugh as he took home the Best Actor Filmfare Award.
In 2011, SRK broke loose and took film promotions to greater heights while promoting his sci-fi superhero film, Ra.One. But unlike all the hype, the film turned out to be a dud and SRK received only brickbats from fans and critics.
Shah Rukh Khan extended his winning streak, when his IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders won this year's Indian Premiere League. Revelling in the success of his team's victory, SRK had said that the last five years made him realise that he can also fail. "I have been working for almost 20 years and have achieved success. It was high time I faced failure. In the last five years I have changed and realised that I can also fail. Success is not a good teacher, failure makes you humble. Success and failure are both part of life. Both are not permanent," he said.
Shah Rukh Khan revisits his romantic persona in Yash Chopra's last film Jab Tak Hai Jaan, which set to release this Diwali (November 13, 2012). The film will see SRK playing the role of an army officer named Samar. The sudden demise of Yash Chopra has left the actor bereaved. He describes it as a personal loss, and says he will always keep a part of the filmmaker in his heart.
Apart from his long list of Filmfare and other movie awards, SRK has received several honours. In 2005, the Government of India honoured him with the
Padma Shri for his contributions towards Indian cinema.
In 2008, King Khan received the second highest French civilian award 'Officer Dan Ordre Arts et des Lettres' for his contribution to Indian film industry.
In April this year, Shah Rukh Khan was named a Chubb Fellow, considered among Yale university's highest honours. "SRK represents a model of public life. Through his films and philanthropy, the Chubb fellowship noted that Khan has been among his generation's most important examples of the power of art to promote higher human ideals and inspirations," the university said about the actor.
Upon reaching United States to visit the Yale University to receive the Chubb Fellow in April this year, SRK was detained at a New York airport for two hours before being cleared by the immigration officials. It was a repeat of a 2009 incident in which he had been detained at Newark airport and released after a two hour grilling.
Back home, there was outrage and anger and Shah Rukh Khan chose sarcasm to hit back. "Whenever I start feeling too arrogant about myself, I always take a trip to America. The immigration guys kicked the star out of stardom," he said during his speech to Yale.
SRK has his share of controversies too. He famously came to blows with Salman Khan at Katrina Kaif's birthday party four years ago and the two have maintained a bitter, vocal feud ever since. Earlier this year, SRK made headlines when he was caught in a brawl with Farah Khan's director husband Shirish Kunder at actor Sanjay Dutt's bash. However, the two called a truce.
In May 2012, the Rajasthan Police served summons on SRK to appear in a Jaipur court as he was seen on camera smoking during an IPL match at Jaipur's Sawai Man Singh stadium. Pleading guilty, the actor sought exemption from personal appearance in a court and expressed willingness to pay fine.
At the same time, SRK was banned for five years from Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium as the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) alleged that SRK abused and misbehaved with security personnel and its officials after a match between his team Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians. SRK had said that he was provoked when his children were “physically manhandled in the name of security”.
On his 47th birthday, we wish the Badshah of Bollywood, a very happy birthday.
