Shah Rukh Khan

Shah Rukh Khan, often called SRK, "King Khan" and the "Baadshah of Bollywood", is an Indian actor, film producer, television personality and businessman who has been among the biggest stars of Hindi cinema since the early 1990s.^[1] Born in New Delhi on 2 November 1965, he started out on television in the late 1980s and made his film debut with Deewana (1992), which won him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut.^[1][10] He has since appeared in more than 100 films, and his romantic roles in films such as Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kal Ho Naa Ho made him a global face of Indian cinema with a large following across Asia and the Indian diaspora.^[1]

His recognition includes 15 Filmfare Awards, eight of them for Best Actor, and his first National Film Award for Best Actor for Jawan (2023), shared with Vikrant Massey for 12th Fail and presented by President Droupadi Murmu on 23 September 2025.^[1][12] The Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri in 2005, and France gave him the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2007 and the Legion of Honour in 2014.^[1]

He is also a major businessman: he runs the production company Red Chillies Entertainment with his wife Gauri Khan and co-owns the IPL cricket team Kolkata Knight Riders.^[1][11] In 2026 he is at the centre of the year's most anticipated Hindi release, the action thriller King, scheduled for 24 December 2026, and the Hurun Global Rich List 2026 valued him at about US$1.3 billion, making him India's richest actor.^[3][4][6]

Khan was born on 2 November 1965 in New Delhi into a Muslim family, the second child of Meer Taj Mohammed Khan, an Indian independence activist, and Lateef Fatima.^[10] He has described himself on social media as "half Hyderabadi" through his mother and "half Pathan" through his father, with some Kashmiri ancestry through his grandmother, and his paternal grandfather came from a Pashtun family from Afghanistan.^[1] He was also a relative of Major General Shah Nawaz Khan of the Indian National Army.^[1]

He studied at St. Columba's School in Delhi and then at Hansraj College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree.^[1] He became interested in acting through theatre in Delhi, and in the late 1980s he moved to Mumbai to work in television and films.^[1] He first became known to Indian audiences through television serials, including the army drama Fauji (1988) and the series Circus (1989).^[1]

His first film role was in Deewana (1992), where he starred alongside another newcomer, Divya Bharti.^[10] The film was a commercial success and won him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut.^[10] He then took on unconventional negative roles in films such as Baazigar and Darr (both 1993) and Anjaam (1994), which went against the usual hero image and made his reputation as a performer prepared to take risks.^[1]

He married Gauri Chhibber in 1991, and in 2000 he and the actress Juhi Chawla started a production company called Dreamz Unlimited, which was renamed Red Chillies Entertainment in 2003; its first release, Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani (2000), failed to find a wide audience.^[10][11]

The mid-1990s turned Khan into a major star. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), a romantic drama directed by Aditya Chopra, became one of the most successful Indian films and brought him a Filmfare Award for Best Actor, and he reinforced his image as the romantic lead with Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001).^[1] In the 2000s he took on more varied roles, including the tragic lover in Devdas (2002), an NRI scientist in Swades (2004), and a disgraced hockey coach in Chak De! India (2007), while his production company, Red Chillies, backed films such as Main Hoon Na and Om Shanti Om (2007).^[1][2]

His films of the 2010s included My Name Is Khan (2010), in which he played a man with Asperger's syndrome, the superhero film Ra.One (2011) and the commercial hits Chennai Express (2013) and Happy New Year (2014), though he also had a series of box-office disappointments, culminating in Zero (2018), after which he took a four-year break from acting.^[1]

The comeback came in 2023, when he starred in three films in a single year. Pathaan, an action thriller in the YRF Spy Universe directed by Siddharth Anand, and Jawan, directed by Atlee, each grossed over Rs 10 billion worldwide, ranking as the second and third biggest Hindi grossers ever and making him the first Indian actor to have two films earn more than Rs 10 billion.^[1] He then appeared in Rajkumar Hirani's Dunki (December 2023), and for his performance in Jawan he received his first National Film Award for Best Actor, the first of his career after more than three decades.^[1][12] In 2024 he received a career achievement award at the Locarno Film Festival.^[3]

His 2026 is built around King, an action thriller directed by Siddharth Anand, which is his first theatrical release in about three years and also features his daughter Suhana Khan, along with Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Arshad Warsi and Rani Mukerji.^[3] The film is scheduled for 24 December 2026, and Khan himself confirmed on social media that the release date would not change despite rumours.^[3][4] According to reports, the final Mumbai schedule began on 11 October 2026 with action sequences and an additional song featuring Suhana Khan, with Kareena Kapoor reportedly making a special appearance and a teaser possibly planned for his 61st birthday on 2 November.^[5] A cameo by Ranveer Singh has also been reported.^[4]

He also made a public appearance at the Joy Awards in Riyadh on 17 January 2026, where he spoke about the warmth of his fans in Saudi Arabia, and in 2026 he became the brand ambassador for the skincare brand Foxtale, while he, Ajay Devgn and Tiger Shroff were reported to have received a notice from the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration over a Vimal Elaichi advertisement.^[8][9]

Khan married Gauri Chhibber, a Delhi-born film producer and interior designer, in 1991, and in 2002 the couple established Red Chillies Entertainment, which has produced films such as Main Hoon Na, Om Shanti Om, Ra.One and Chennai Express.^[10][11] They have three children, Aryan, Suhana and AbRam, and Suhana, who made her acting debut in 2023, appears alongside her father in King.^[1][3] The family lives in Mannat, a heritage sea-facing residence in Bandra, Mumbai, which has been estimated at about US$24 million, and Khan reportedly also owns properties in Delhi, London and Beverly Hills.^[13]

Alongside acting, he runs a diverse business portfolio under the "Brand SRK" label. He co-owns the IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders, which he bought into in 2008, and the Caribbean Premier League team Trinbago Knight Riders through the Knight Riders Group.^[1][2] He is also a prominent endorser for dozens of brands.^[1]

Khan's wealth has drawn constant attention. The Hurun India Rich List 2025 valued him at Rs 12,490 crore (about US$1.4 billion), which placed him among the world's billionaire actors.^[7][13] In 2026 the Hurun Global Rich List valued him at Rs 10,800 crore (about US$1.3 billion), and the Hurun India Rich List 2026, published in September, put him at Rs 10,000 crore, a fall of Rs 2,490 crore from the previous year but still well ahead of Amitabh Bachchan (Rs 4,000 crore), Salman Khan and Hrithik Roshan.^[6][7] Analysts note that such valuation changes reflect changes in how his business holdings are valued and not a loss of cash.^[7]

Because net worth figures are third-party estimates rather than audited accounts, they should be treated as approximate.^[6][7]