[3] Shere Khan is depicted by Kipling as having been born with a crippled leg, so his mother gave him the derisive nickname "Lungri" ("The Lame One").

When Shere Khan discovers the infant, it has been adopted by Indian wolves, Raksha and Father Wolf, who have named the child Mowgli.

While Mowgli is growing up, Shere Khan infiltrates the wolf pack by promising the younger wolves rich rewards once Akela is deposed.

Having been warned by Bagheera, Mowgli attacks Shere Khan and his allies with a burning branch (the mysterious and powerful "red flower" of man) and drives them away.

With the help of Akela, Grey Brother and Mowgli trap Shere Khan in a narrow canyon and incite the buffalo to stampede him to death.

Man's gun and fire are the only things Shere Khan fears, and consequently, he feels the urge to kill humans whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Shere Khan first appears about two-thirds of the way through the film where, after having been interrupted during a hunt by Colonel Hathi, he eavesdrops on Bagheera asking the elephants to help search for a now-lost Mowgli and sets out to find and kill the boy.

Shere Khan becomes annoyed and immediately attempts to attack Mowgli, who flinches in fear, finally understanding the true danger of the ferocious beast.

Humiliated by the ordeal of his tail being tied to a burning branch in the original film, the tiger has sworn to kill Mowgli for revenge.

Shanti and Mowgli are saved by Baloo while Shere Khan falls onto a stone slab in the lava pit, and the statue lands on top of him, trapping him inside its mouth.

In The Jungle Book 2, Shere Khan was voiced by Tony Jay, who reprised his role from the Disney Afternoon series TaleSpin.

Shere Khan appeared in the 1990-1991 Disney Afternoon series TaleSpin, which anthropomorphised a number of animal characters from the 1967 Jungle Book.

He was a nominal villain who occasionally took enjoyment in driving small companies out of business to expand his own enterprise, but sometimes allied with the heroes when it suited him.

At the beginning of the film, he sees two British guards and a hunter named Buldeo shooting animals for sport and becomes enraged at this.

That night, he attacks the humans' camp in revenge for the animals' death and kills Mowgli's father Nathoo in response to him defending Buldeo.

Shere Khan is not seen again until the second half of the film, which takes place twenty years after the first act, when he spots several hunters (led by Captain William Boone) and roars to announce his approach.

Shere Khan appears once again as a villain in the 1998 film The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story, where he is voiced by Sherman Howard and accompanied by his sidekick Tabaqui, who in this version is a spotted hyena.

Raksha, Mowgli's adoptive mother, retorts that they do not see him as the jungle's ruler; and that he has no right to dictate rules since he breaks them himself.

Though Shere Khan defeats and mildly injures Bagheera, Mowgli escapes with the aid of a stampeding water buffalo herd.

When Mowgli hears of Akela's death, he returns to face Shere Khan at the river with a burning torch stolen from the Man-village.

Infuriated by this defiance and insult to his self-proclaimed reign, he roars in fury while unleashing his true behavior as a vicious tiger; now attempting to kill all the animals just to get to Mowgli.

However, the combined efforts of Baloo, Bagheera and the wolf pack keep him distracted long enough for Mowgli to set a trap in the burning jungle nearby.

During their battle, Mowgli lures Shere Khan onto a dead strangler fig tree and eventually defeats him by causing him to fall roaring to his death into the fires below.

[10] In the 2018 live-action film Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, Shere Khan is portrayed in motion-capture and voice-over by Benedict Cumberbatch.

He is also considerably more sinister than previous incarnations as he continually strives to gain more power and influence among the jungle's creatures as he seeks to kill Mowgli.

When the infant Mowgli escapes him thanks to the intervention of Bagheera and the wolf pack, Shere Khan is informed of his whereabouts by his hyena minion Tabaqui and challenges Akela for him.