Shah Rukh Khan[a] (pronounced [ˈʃaːɦɾʊx xäːn] ⓘ; born 2 November 1965), also known by the initialism SRK, is an Indian actor and film producer who works in Hindi cinema.

[52] Also released in 1992 were Khan's first films as the male lead, Chamatkar, Dil Aashna Hai, and the comedy Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, which was his first of many collaborations with the actress Juhi Chawla.

Arnab Ray subsequently credited Khan for taking "insane risks" and "pushing the envelope" by choosing to play such characters, through which he established his career.

[65] His most significant release that year was Aditya Chopra's directorial debut, the romance Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, in which he played a young Non-resident Indian (NRI) who falls in love with Kajol's character during a trip across Europe.

"[72] In 1996, all four of Khan's releases failed critically and commercially,[73] but the following year, his starring role opposite Aditya Pancholi and Juhi Chawla in Aziz Mirza's romantic comedy Yes Boss earned him accolades that included a Filmfare Best Actor nomination.

[77] The same year, Khan won critical praise for his performance as an All India Radio correspondent who develops an infatuation for a mysterious terrorist (Manisha Koirala) in Dil Se..,[78] the third instalment of Mani Ratnam's trilogy of terror films.

[82] The roles in this phase of his career, and the series of romantic comedies and family dramas that followed, earned Khan widespread adulation from audiences, particularly teenagers,[83] and according to the author Anupama Chopra, established him as an icon of romance in India.

"[93] In 2001, Dreamz Unlimited attempted a comeback with Khan portraying the title role in Santosh Sivan's historical epic Aśoka, a partly fictionalised account of the life of emperor Ashoka.

[109] In 2002, Khan played the title role as a rebellious alcoholic opposite Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's period romance Devdas.

[120] Film scholar Stephen Teo refers to the picture as an example of "Bollywoodised realism", displaying a transcendence in conventional narrative and audience expectation in Hindi cinema.

[122] Derek Elley of Variety found Khan's performance "unsettling" as "a self-satisfied expatriate determined to bring Western values to poor Indian peasants",[123] but several film critics, including Jitesh Pillai, believed it to have been his finest acting to date.

Bhaichand Patel notes that Khan, who had a background in the sport playing for his university's hockey team,[132] essentially portrayed himself as a "cosmopolitan, liberal, Indian Muslim".

[138] Khalid Mohammed from Hindustan Times wrote, "the enterprise belongs to Shah Rukh Khan, who tackles comedy, high drama and action with his signature style—spontaneous and intuitively intelligent".

[139] Khan collaborated for the third time with Aditya Chopra on the romantic comedy Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008) opposite debutante Anushka Sharma.

He played Surinder Sahni, a shy man with low self-esteem, whose love for his young arranged wife (Sharma) causes him to transform himself into Raj, a boisterous alter-ego.

[147] To provide an accurate portrayal of a sufferer without disparagement, Khan spent several months researching his role by reading books, watching videos and talking to people affected by the condition.

[150] Jay Wesissberg from Variety noted how Khan portrayed the Asperger's sufferer with "averted eyes, springy steps, [and] stuttered repetitions of memorized texts", believing it to have been a "standout performance sure to receive the Autism Society's gold seal of approval".

[151] In 2011, Khan starred alongside Arjun Rampal and Kareena Kapoor in Anubhav Sinha's superhero film Ra.One, his first work in this subgenre, as a favour to his children.

[159] His performance earned him positive reviews from critics; Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India said, "Shah Rukh remains in command and never loses his foothold, neither through the dramatic sequences nor through the action cuts".

[172][173] On International Women's Day in 2013, The Times of India reported that Khan had requested a new convention with the name of his lead female co-stars appearing above his own in the credits.

[174] In 2014, the actor was featured in Farah Khan's ensemble action comedy Happy New Year, which co-starred Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan and Boman Irani; his third collaboration with the director.

[180] Namrata Joshi of The Hindu commented, "With Dilwale, Rohit Shetty goes hopelessly wrong despite much that he had at his disposal, including a power-packed cast and producer", and felt that the attempt to repackage Khan and Kajol had backfired.

[183] Later that year, Khan portrayed the supporting part of a therapist to an aspiring cinematographer (Alia Bhatt) in Gauri Shinde's coming-of-age film Dear Zindagi.

[186][187] Khan returned to the romantic genre with the role of a tourist guide who falls in love with a traveller (Anushka Sharma) in Imtiaz Ali's Jab Harry Met Sejal (2017).

[199] In 2023, Khan reunited with Yash Raj Films in the action thriller Pathaan (2023), set in the YRF Spy Universe, in which he played an exiled field agent assigned to stop a terrorist attack in India.

[205] Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in wrote that "Khan's screen image – expansive, suffused with love, heroic in an old-fashioned way without being aggressively macho, irreverent but also sincere – helps sell a conceit that might have crashed with any other actor".

[89] After the partnership was dissolved, he and Gauri restructured the company as Red Chillies Entertainment,[116] which includes divisions dealing with film and television production, visual effects, and advertising.

[231] Khan performed alongside Rani Mukherji, Arjun Rampal and Ishaa Koppikar in a 2010 concert at the St. Joseph High School field in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

[249] Khan had, however, stated that he acted only after children, including his daughter, were being "manhandled" by the security staff[249][250] and that the officials were extremely high-handed and aggressive in their behaviour,[251] he had been abused with communal indecent comment.

[302][303] In October 2019, Khan featured in a video launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary.