Every once in a while, there is a hotly contested debate among film fanatics and critics, the debate being who is the best Bollywood actor of all time. Whilst everyone’s opinion varies, hardly anybody questions the claims of fans naming Shah Rukh Khan as the reigning King of Bollywood. From a little boy on the streets of Delhi to being the King, Shah Rukh Khan has indeed walked a thousand miles.
Born on 2nd November 1965, Shah Rukh Khan spent his childhood in Delhi and had an affinity towards sports and acting. An alumnus of Hansraj college with a degree in economics, he also attended the National School of Drama to enhance his acting skills. Hailing from a non-film background, it was incredibly difficult for a Delhi boy without any celebrity phone numbers or contacts to make it to the films. Therefore, his first acting job was in a television serial “Fauji” which was released in 1989. His next television serial “Circus” was released in 1990 in which he was the lead actor.
However, life took a tragic turn for Khan when he lost his mother to diabetes in 1991. Orphaned at the age of 20, he decided to switch to film app route in order to cope with the grief. Luck favored him and he was able to bag four films simultaneously and finally his debut film “Deewana” released in 1992 which became a huge success. His success followed along as his next stints “Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman”, “Dil Aashna Hai” and “Chamatkar” gave him rave reviews and hits.
This gave him celebrity phone numbers, contacts, and influence inside the industry. He switched his gear in 1993 by playing an antagonist in Baazigar and Darr which earned him a Filmfare for Best Actor.
But the turning point in Shah Rukh Khan’s film app career came in 1995 when he again switched gears to play the romantic lead. He signed seven films in that year out of which one was “Dilwale Dulahania Le Jayenge”, a film which broke box office records and became the longest-running film of all time, still running at over 1000 weeks at “Maratha Mandir”. He followed up this success with more romantic leads in “Yes Boss”, “Dil Toh Pagal Hai” and “Pardes”. His 1998 film “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” gave him the title of King of Bollywood and he established himself as the romantic icon of the Indian film industry.
It was at this point that he was lauded as one of the best bollywood actors of all time. He also began to be seen as a family-friendly face as his movies like “Kabhi Khushi Kabhi gham”, “Mohabbatein” and “Kal Ho Na Ho” were family-oriented and became some of the top-grossing films of all time. Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s “Devdas'' which was the most expensive film made at one point in time, won him Filmfare and a BAFTA award.
Apart from films, he opened his own production house “Dreamz Unlimited” which he renamed to “Red Chillies Entertainment Limited” in 2004. His wife Gauri Khan became his business partner and together they began producing all his films starting from “Main Hoon Na” in 2004. His 2004 movie “Swades” became the first movie to be shot inside NASA and his performance is ranked as his finest to date. Shah Rukh Khan continued his stream of success with “Chak De India”, “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi”, “Om Shanti Om” and “Jab Tak Hai Jaan”.
In the past decade, he has experimented with several different roles like an action hero in “Chennai Express” and a dwarf in “Zero”. Whilst he may have lost the box office sheen in some of his recent films like “Dilwale”, it is a fact that he remains the undisputed King of Bollywood.
