50 Fun Facts About Shah Rukh Khan

Which Mumbai cinema has screened Shah Rukh Khan's Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge for more than a thousand weeks?

Maratha Mandir tried to end the run after 1,009 weeks in 2015, citing low attendance, then reinstated the film after an outpouring of support from audiences.

Which character did Shah Rukh Khan voice in the Hindi dub of Disney's The Lion King (2019)?

Mufasa was a family affair: his son Aryan voiced the cub who grows up to be king, and the star had to re-dub lines because their voices sounded too alike.

What is the name of Shah Rukh Khan's famous family bungalow in the Bandra neighbourhood of Mumbai?

Mannat is a protected heritage building and a tourist spot, and renovating it gave the actor's wife the hobby that became her interior-design career.

In Swades (2004), Shah Rukh Khan's Mohan Bhargava quits a job at which organisation to return to India?

NASA opened its doors to the crew: Swades became the first Indian film shot inside the agency's research centre at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Shah Rukh Khan's 2006 thriller Don remade a 1978 film starring which actor as the title criminal?

Amitabh Bachchan cast a long shadow: director Farhan Akhtar first weighed Hrithik Roshan for the remake, then decided the part needed a more mature face.

Which Indian Premier League cricket team has Shah Rukh Khan co-owned since the franchise was bought in 2008?

Kolkata Knight Riders played poorly for three seasons under the film star's ownership before winning a first IPL title in 2012.

Which sport does Shah Rukh Khan's disgraced former captain coach for India's women in Chak De! India (2007)?

Hockey was the actor's own game: he excelled at it in school and hoped for a sports career until a shoulder injury ended that plan.

Which condition does Shah Rukh Khan's title character have in My Name Is Khan (2010), set in post-9/11 America?

Asperger syndrome took months of homework: the actor read books, watched videos and talked to people affected by the condition before filming.

Which actress made her Hindi film debut opposite Shah Rukh Khan in the reincarnation drama Om Shanti Om (2007)?

Deepika Padukone won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for it, after the film first planned as her Hindi launch, Happy New Year, was shelved for eight years.

In which 1989 Doordarshan series did Shah Rukh Khan make his television debut, playing Abhimanyu Rai?

Fauji first had him as the second lead, but the director rewrote the script to build the series around him after seeing how well he came across on camera.

In which Indian city was Shah Rukh Khan born in 1965, later attending St. Columba's School there?

New Delhi became home only after he turned five: he spent his first years in Mangalore, where his grandfather was chief engineer of the port.

Whom did Shah Rukh Khan marry in a Hindu ceremony in 1991 after a six-year courtship?

Gauri Chibber is Hindu and he is Muslim, and their children follow both religions: at home the Qur'an sits beside images of Hindu deities.

Which 1992 romance, co-starring Rishi Kapoor and Divya Bharti, was Shah Rukh Khan's first released film?

Deewana reached cinemas first and won him the Filmfare Best Male Debut award, though his first film offer had been for Hema Malini's directorial debut.

Which filmmaker made his directorial debut with the Shah Rukh Khan college romance Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998)?

Karan Johar had already shared the screen with the star, playing a friend of his character in a 1995 romance on which he also worked as an assistant director.

Which actress, a frequent Shah Rukh Khan co-star since 1993, plays Mandira in My Name Is Khan (2010)?

Kajol outshone him in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai by his own account: he won Best Actor for it, yet he and several critics felt her performance overshadowed his.

Which fellow superstar plays SRK's brother in the 1995 reincarnation thriller Karan Arjun?

Salman Khan plays Karan to his Arjun: the two are killed by the greedy uncle who murdered their father, then reincarnated to complete their revenge.

In which 2002 Sanjay Leela Bhansali film does Shah Rukh Khan play an alcoholic torn between Paro and Chandramukhi?

Devdas was the most expensive Bollywood film made up to that time and earned a BAFTA nomination for Best Film Not in the English Language.

Which 2023 spy thriller ended Shah Rukh Khan's four-year break from leading roles and launched his comeback?

Pathaan cast him as an exiled field agent sent to stop a terrorist attack, and it broke several box-office records, re-establishing his stardom.

Which first name do Shah Rukh Khan's characters share in Darr, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham?

Rahul covers both extremes of his career: an obsessive stalker in the 1993 thriller, then the romantic lead of the two later family blockbusters.

Which production company, with its own visual effects division, did Shah Rukh Khan found with his wife?

Red Chillies Entertainment once retitled a film to spare feelings: Billu Barber became Billu after hairdressers complained that the word barber was derogatory.

Which civilian honour did the Government of India award Shah Rukh Khan in 2005?

Padma Shri was only the start of his official honours: in 2011 he became the first Indian to receive UNESCO's Pyramide con Marni award for backing children's education.

Which Shah Rukh Khan film, directed by Atlee, earned him his first National Film Award for Best Actor?

Jawan had him play father and son lookalikes, and it broke the box-office records that his previous release had set only months earlier.

Which director of 3 Idiots and PK made the 2023 Shah Rukh Khan immigration drama Dunki?

Rajkumar Hirani had been turned down by the star twice, for Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. and 3 Idiots, so this story of illegal migration was their first film together.

Which actress plays Kaira, the cinematographer counselled by Shah Rukh Khan's therapist in Dear Zindagi?

Alia Bhatt's Kaira seeks him out for her insomnia after overhearing him speak at a mental health conference, and the superstar settles for the supporting part.

Which actress plays Zaara, the Pakistani woman loved by Shah Rukh Khan's Air Force officer, in Veer-Zaara (2004)?

Preity Zinta plays Zaara, a Pakistani politician's daughter, while Rani Mukerji is the young lawyer who fights to free him after 22 years in a Pakistani jail.

In which 2003 New York-set film does Shah Rukh Khan play Aman Mathur, a man hiding a fatal heart condition?

Kal Ho Naa Ho has his character keep the illness secret and steer the woman who loves him towards her best friend instead.

Which 2013 Rohit Shetty comedy sends Shah Rukh Khan off to scatter his grandfather's ashes?

Chennai Express was criticised for its portrayal of South Indian culture, yet it briefly became the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time.

For which 1998 Mani Ratnam film did Shah Rukh Khan dance on top of a moving train to Chaiyya Chaiyya?

Dil Se cast him as a radio journalist infatuated with a mysterious woman, and its famous song was shot in the Nilgiri hills, on the line heading up to Ooty.

Which ancient Indian emperor does Shah Rukh Khan play in a 2001 historical epic directed by Santosh Sivan?

Ashoka's story drew a warm response at the Venice and Toronto film festivals, but the film did poorly in India and deepened his production company's losses.

Which hit Indian television show did Shah Rukh Khan host for its third season in 2007?

Kaun Banega Crorepati turned to him for a single season when its regular presenter declined, and a year later he fronted India's Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader.

In which country were the European journey scenes of Shah Rukh Khan's Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge mainly filmed?

Switzerland supplied the villages of Saanen, Montbovon and Gstaad for the rail trip, and the very first sequence shot for the film was a song filmed there.

Who made his directorial debut with Shah Rukh Khan's 1995 romance Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge?

Aditya Chopra got a hesitant leading man: the actor was at first reluctant to play a lover, yet this is the film credited with making him a romantic hero.

Which actress plays Kiran, the woman obsessively stalked by Shah Rukh Khan's character in Darr (1993)?

Juhi Chawla was far from the first choice: Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit were both offered the part, and Divya Bharti was signed before being replaced.

In which 1993 thriller, loosely based on A Kiss Before Dying, does Shah Rukh Khan play a murderous avenger?

Baazigar shocked audiences by having its hero murder his girlfriend, and it still won him his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor.

In which 2004 film does Shah Rukh Khan play Major Ram, an army officer posing as a college student?

Main Hoon Na sends him to class to guard a general's estranged daughter, where he sticks out as far older than the students and even some professors.

In which 2000 musical does Shah Rukh Khan play Raj Aryan, a music teacher at the strict all-boys Gurukul?

Mohabbatein reached him only after Aamir Khan turned the part down, and he is said to have accepted it without even reading the script.

Which 2012 Shah Rukh Khan romance was the last film directed by Yash Chopra before his death?

Jab Tak Hai Jaan had him break his long-held rule against kissing co-stars on screen, which he gave up only after strong urging from the director.

In which 2008 film does Shah Rukh Khan's shy Surinder Sahni reinvent himself as the boisterous Raj?

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi has him court his own young wife in disguise, a double act that a New York Times critic called tailor-made for him.

Which Indian state is the setting for Shah Rukh Khan's rise from bootlegger to mobster in Raees (2017)?

Gujarat's illegal liquor trade drives the plot, and the makers denied reports that the story was based on the life of real gangster Abdul Latif.

Shah Rukh Khan equalled which Hindi cinema legend's record of eight Filmfare Awards for Best Actor?

Dilip Kumar was one of the stars he imitated on stage as a boy, and critics later compared his early television acting to the older actor's style.

Where did Shah Rukh Khan earn his bachelor's degree in economics between 1985 and 1988?

Hansraj College got only part of his attention: he spent much of his time with a theatre group, then cleared an engineering entrance exam because his mother insisted.

In which European city was most of Shah Rukh Khan's heist sequel Don 2 (2011) set and filmed?

Berlin is where his drug lord raids a bank's currency-printing vault, and the finished film was later showcased at the city's international film festival.

What is the name of Shah Rukh Khan's daughter, who plays Veronica Lodge in the Netflix film The Archies (2023)?

Suhana worked behind the camera first, as an assistant director on her father's film Zero, and studied drama at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Which cricket ground banned Shah Rukh Khan for five years after a 2012 argument with security staff?

Wankhede Stadium's ban was revoked in 2015, and Mumbai Police later concluded that he had not been drunk or abusive, as officials had alleged.

Shah Rukh Khan turned down the role that eventually went to Anil Kapoor in which international hit?

Slumdog Millionaire's loss was his gain: he went straight on to shoot My Name Is Khan, the film that brought his eighth Filmfare Award for Best Actor.

In which 2022 film does Shah Rukh Khan make a cameo as a scientist named Mohan Bhargav?

Brahmāstra has his scientist fight off attackers with the monkey-powered Vānarāstra, then leap from a balcony rather than give up his order's secrets.

Which Tamil cinema star directed Shah Rukh Khan in the bilingual period drama Hey Ram (2000)?

Kamal Haasan got his services for nothing: the Hindi star performed free of charge because he wanted to work with him, and it became his Tamil debut.

Which theatre director mentored the young Shah Rukh Khan at the Theatre Action Group in the 1980s?

Barry John, an English-born director who settled in India, founded the group in 1973 and later taught future stars such as Manoj Bajpayee and Freida Pinto.

From which city did Shah Rukh Khan's father, an independence activist, move in 1946 to study law?

Peshawar's Qissa Khwani Bazaar was still home to his paternal relatives in 2010, though Partition kept his father from returning there for many years.

Which production company did Shah Rukh Khan co-found in 1999 with director Aziz Mirza and a frequent co-star?

Dreamz Unlimited made only three films: the partners split after a casting dispute over Chalte Chalte, even though that film turned out to be a success.