"You don't know who you're dealing with here! This is KHAN! The Tom Cruise of India, the Brad Pitt of Bollywood, the Shia Labeouf of Mumbai, the Topher Grace of New Delhi, the dude from Twilight of Calcutta!"
— Aasif Mandvi, The Daily Show
Also called SRK or King Khan by those in the know. Chances are, if you've heard of Bollywood, you've heard of SRK (born Shahrukh Khan, 2 November 1965). Maybe in a newspaper article calling him Bollywood's Tom Cruise or Harrison Ford, as in the page quote, but none of those descriptions can capture the mystique, the appeal, the popularity of the man himself.
Famous for playing endearing manchildren who mature due to the the love of a good woman, but he does display his range in between by playing the Stalker with a Crush (Darr, Anjaam, Dil Se..), Buddhist Emperors (Asoka), coach to the Indian women's hockey team (Chak De! India), and the eponymous Don.
Forms a very popular onscreen jodi with Kajol and Madhuri Dixit.
Notable Films:
- Asoka
- Baazigar
- Darr
- Dil Se..
- Dil To Pagal Hai
- Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
- Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Gham
- Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
- Main Hoon Na
- Swades
- Veer Zaara
- Kal Ho Naa Ho
- Don
- Don 2
- Om Shanti Om
- Chak De! India
- Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
- My Name is Khan
- Ra.One
- Dear Zindagi
- Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva
- Pathaan
- Jawan
His work provides examples of the following tropes:
- Age-Gap Romance: During the 2010s, he still often played romantic leads with his female co-stars who were over fifteen to twenty years his junior. Some notable examples: Priyanka Chopra in Don: The Chase Begins Again and Don 2, Katrina Kaif in Jab Tak Hai Jaan, Deepika Padukone in Om Shanti Om and Chennai Express and Anushka Sharma in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Jab Tak Hai Jaan.
- Almost Kiss: Enforced as he refuses to kiss his costars out of respect for his wife, which he's only broken on a couple of occasions (Jab Tak Hai Jaan, Jab Harry Met Sejal).
- The Charmer: Used most famously in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge where he charms not only his love interest, but also her entire extended family including his girlfriend's future-in-laws of her arranged marriage that was being forced on her by her father and gets her father in the end to accept him as his son-in-law.
- Chronically Killed Actor: Can be considered the trope codifier, it can be easier to count the movies where he dies rather than lives.
- Filmi Music: As it's customary for Bollywood, he performs musical numbers for Indian films and series.
-
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: He was declared a Datuk in Malaysia
, which helped to increase the popularity of Bollywood films.
- Signature Move: Spreading his arms in every singing and dancing scenes.
- Stalker with a Crush: He plays this in almost all his early movies. Either women he falls in love with return his love and he becomes endearing or in a darker movie, he becomes a psychopath.
- Verbal Tic: He's famous for his stutter. He also has a famous line reading from the movie Darr where his character stutters out the name of the heroine whom he is stalking. "K-k-k-k-kiran!"
