When searching for modern Indian cinema and its most important celebrities and flags, the name Shah Rukh Khan - or as he is called for short - Shah Rukh Khan - is the first that comes to mind, even those who do not prefer Bollywood cinema know him well, and remember one of his most famous films, which he achieved International hit "My Name Is Khan".
Shahrukh Khan is an Indian actor and producer who has been called by the media and his fans with many titles. He is "Badshah of Bollywood", "King of Bollywood" and "King Khan", who has appeared in more than 80 films, most of which have achieved great commercial success, and won many awards that are difficult to count, His stardom came from India to Asia and then to the world, and he is considered one of the most important and most famous and successful world movie stars at the present time.
mixed origins
Shah Rukh Khan looks as if he is a mirror of India's wide cultural and ethnic diversity, as he belongs to his mother from the Muslims of "Hyderabad", and inherited from his father the Pashtun origins that go back to southern Afghanistan, and his paternal grandmother is Afghan, and part of his family traces back to Kashmir.
Shah Rukh Khan was born into a Muslim family in New Delhi in 1965, to a human rights father who believes in non-violence, and works for the "Khudi Khidmatjar" movement that aims to unite and independence India.
He lived his childhood as a member of the Indian middle class in this period. He was raised in a quiet suburb of New Delhi, excelled in his studies and various sports such as hockey and football, and won school awards constantly, and he was planning to devote his working life to sports, but a shoulder injury aborted this dreaming early
Instead of sports, Shah Rukh Khan turned to acting, in the school theater, in which he excelled in imitating famous Bollywood actors, especially Amitabh Bachchan and Dilip Kumar, and one of his colleagues at this stage Amrita Singh, who later became one of the stars of Indian cinema.
At the university level, Shah Rukh Khan majored in economics, but spent most of his time at the "Delhi Theater Group" and there he studied acting, after that he tried to take two parallel paths between serious study, and obtaining a master's degree in media, and acting, but he quickly reached a crossroads. He chose acting and enrolled in the National School of Drama in Delhi.
From TV to cinema
Shah Rukh Khan's beginnings were on Indian television, in 1988, with more than one series at a time, to achieve rapid spread for himself, then in an English-language television movie, and indeed drew the attention of critics who likened his appearance and style of acting to the great star Dilip Kumar, and saw him as a brilliant cinematic future. However, Khan - a young man at this time - did not see himself as a movie actor, and doubted that he had sufficient talent and experience for that.
It took him 3 years to gain enough confidence to enter the cinematic experience;
To escape his grief due to the death of his mother in 1991, he left Delhi and moved to live in Mumbai, and there he placed all his focus on storming the fortresses of Bollywood, which were not invulnerable to him. It was shown in 1992, and became one of the highest-grossing films of that year, and Shah Rukh Khan's stardom was launched at rocket speed.
The king of evil roles
It's always been rumored that any good actor can do the good, but it is the excellent who masters the roles of evil, and this was proven by Shah Rukh Khan at this point in his career, as he received successive praise for his performance of scary characters, such as the obsessive lover in the movie " Darr and the killer in Baazigar shocked viewers with unprecedented violence in Hindi cinema, where Khan challenged the traditional hero image in both films and created his own version of the evil hero capable of captivating critics and audiences.
He continued to provide villainous roles and won the Filmfare Award for Best Villain for Anjaam, although at the time playing roles like this was considered too risky for the actors' career in mainstream Hindi cinema, some critics thought he would take Crazy risk taking these bold choices, but it was his own way to start his pioneering career.
Globalism
In the nineties and the beginning of the millennium, Shah Rukh Khan moved between different roles, he presented action, melodrama, horror and romance, and nothing stopped him from proving his talent and popularity, including his 1995 movie with the star Salman Khan entitled "Karan Arjun", which became the second highest-grossing film of that year, As well as the romantic film "Bride of Hearts Will Be Taken" (Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge), which achieved a resounding success by all standards, and became the highest-grossing film in India, as well as the most continuous in theaters, as it was shown for more than a thousand weeks in some cinemas, and the director said about him And critic, Raja Sen, after this performance "Khan gave a fantastic performance, redefining the lover in the nineties with great skill. He is brilliant and loyal enough to attract the audience."
But like any other star, he went through some failures, especially with the large number of films he presented each year, which sometimes reached 7 films annually, and one of his most important films in this period is "Foreign Country" (Pardes), which is one of the first Indian commercial films Which achieved success in the United States, and in 2001 he presented the main role in the movie "Aśoka" about the life of the Indian emperor of the same name, and the film was shown at the Venice Film Festival as well as the Toronto Film Festival.
Despite international critical acclaim, it did not earn much in India, his film "Veer-Zaara" subsequently screened at the Berlin Film Festival, and his 2002 film "Devdas" earned a BAFTA nomination in the Best Film category. Foreigner.
And in 2004, he took a new step towards the world by presenting his movie "Swades", in which he played the role of a scientist at NASA, the first Indian film filmed inside the NASA Research Center at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.
The film was considered an example of "Bollywood realism", as it showed a difference from the traditional narrative and audience expectations of mainstream Indian cinema.
His name is Khan
Despite his many previous successes, filming some of his films in the United States, and the success of others internationally, many of the non-Indian audience did not get to know SRK closely until the release of his famous movie "My Name Is Khan" in 2010.
The film is based on a true story and takes place against the backdrop of popular perceptions in the United States about Islam and Muslims after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Khan plays the role of Rizwan Khan, a Muslim who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome (Autism Spectrum Mild) who sets out on a journey across America, To meet the country's president to tell him that he is not a violent or terrorist person because of his religion, after a tragedy that his family experienced as a result of violence against Muslims.
To provide an accurate picture of people with Asperger syndrome, Khan spent several months researching his role, reading books, watching videos, and talking to people affected by the condition.
Upon its release, My Name Is Khan became one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films of all time outside of India, and Khan took home his eighth Filmfare Award for Best Actor, equaling the record for the highest number of winners in the Actor Dilip Kumar category.
When he knew the pain
With his great success, Shah Rukh Khan also knew both physical and psychological pain, beginning with losing his father and mother at a very close time, which launched his career when he could not reside in New Delhi and moved to Mumbai and there he became a film actor.
After the death of his parents, his older sister Shahnaz Lallaruk fell into a severe depression, and Khan took the responsibility of taking care of her, and she lives with her brother and family in their palace in Mumbai until now.
As for physical pain, it started in 2001 when he first dealt with health problems. He suffered from a herniated disc as a result of an injury to his back while performing one of the dangerous scenes during the filming of an action movie.
He then tried many alternative treatments, but none of them provided a permanent solution to the injury, which caused him severe pain during the shooting of several of his films afterwards.
By the beginning of 2003, his condition had worsened to the point that he had to undergo a dangerous and painful operation in London, and since that year he has reduced his workload and the number of film roles he accepts annually.
But it was repeated in December 2008, when Khan sustained a shoulder injury while filming a small role in a movie and underwent extensive physiotherapy sessions at the time, but the pain made him unable to move, and he underwent arthroscopic surgery in February 2009 .
Shah Rukh Khan has stated more than once that he sees himself as an ordinary person who has had a miracle, and that he lives a legend as if he was destined to be a part of it, and in fact his great success in India or abroad is evidence of the validity of this legend.