In the 90s, when the question arose about who would take over the mantle of Bollywood’s top star from Amitabh Bachchan , the three Khans stood up. Born within a few months of each other, these three actors began their careers around the same time and had their breakthroughs as leading heroes simultaneously. For the next half-decade, the names Shah Rukh , Salman, and Aamir were almost always used together. Any rising star was dubbed the ‘fourth Khan’.
But then came a time when Shah Rukh broke free, earning the moniker “King Khan.”
With a box office gross of almost ₹ 8000 crore and an enviable overseas record, he truly has been the numero uno star of the Hindi film industry. From 2000-07, Salman faced fluctuating fortunes at the box office. During this period, he earned a staggering ₹ 1326 crore at the box office, more than what Aamir and Salman made combined. Despite working in only three films since 2020, he is the second-highest-grossing Indian actor during the period, behind a Dhurandhar-led Ranveer Singh. His ₹ 2671 crore gross during this period far outstrips Salman ( ₹ 902 crore) and Aamir ( ₹ 359 crore). In the process, he has taken his lifetime cumulative box office haul to a staggering ₹ 8000 crore, drawing level with Salman Khan. Aamir is still at around ₹ 6600 crore, but with fewer films. Since his debut in 1992, Shah Rukh has given the number 1 film of the year 10 times. Shah Rukh is also the only Indian actor to have a number 1 film in four different decades. Despite Aamir’s success in China, Shah Rukh remains India’s highest-grossing star overseas, with an estimated $400-500 million earnings for his films outside India, another record.
Much of Shah Rukh’s dominance in the 2000s was due to his immense popularity overseas. In a career spanning almost four decades, Shah Rukh has established himself as one of the most successful actors in the history of Hindi cinema. A look at how that incredible career has stacked up in numbers. The tide turned as the century turned. He had a spate of flops and only intermittent successes in No Entry and Partner. Aamir became more selective and gave four years to a single film – Mangal Pandey, which did not fare too well. Shah Rukh, on the other hand, had his golden run, giving era-defining hits like Mohabbatein, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Devdas, Kal Ho Naa Ho, Veer Zaara, and Om Shanti Om, all in succession. But what is most telling is how many calendar years Shah Rukh has dominated. Dilip Kumar follows with eight such years, followed by Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan with seven each, and Raj Kapoor with six. He had two such films in the 1990s, six in the 2000s, and one each in the 2010s (My Name Is Khan) and 2020s (Jawan).
