 Shahrukh Khan was born November 2nd 1965 in New Delhi, India. Both his parents were Muslims. His father Taj Mohammad Khan was a freedom fighter of Peshawar, British India. His mother, Lateef Fatima, was an adopted daughter of a Major General. Shahrukh´s father came to India from Qissa Khawani Bazaar in Peshawar, while his mother came from Rawalpindi, known today as Pakistan. Shahrukh has an older sister named Shehnaz.
Shahrukh attended St. Columba´s School, where he was accomplished in sports, drama and academics. He won the Sword of Honour, an annual award given to the student who embodies most the spirit of the school. He later attended the Hansraj College to earn an Honors degree in economics. After this, he studied for a Master Degree in Mass Communications at Jamia Millia Islamia.
After his parents passed away in 1991, Shahrukh moved from New Delhi to Mumbai. In that same year, before any of his film releases, he married his wife Gauri Khan, in a Hindu wedding ceremony on October 25th 1991. They have two children. A son named Aryan (born 1997) and a daughter Suhana (born 2000)
Khan made his acting debut in 1988 when he appeared in the television series ¨Fauji¨, playing the role of Commando Abhimanyu Rai. He then continued and played in several TV shows. The most succesfull one was ¨Circus¨ in 1989, directed y Aziz Mirza. ¨Circus¨ was a TV show that told the life of circus performers. The same year, Shahrukh also had a minor role in the English spoken, TV movie, ¨In Which Annie Gave it Those Ones¨, which was based on life at Delhi University and was written by Arundhati Roy.
He made his Bollywood movie debut in ¨Deewana¨(1992). The movie was a box office hit, and launched his career in Bollywood. His performance won him a Filmfare Best Male Debut Award. His second movie, ¨Maya Memsaab¨ generated some controversy because of his appearance in an "explicit" sex scene in the movie, but he got well acclaim for his performance as a crazed and obsessed lover in the movie ¨Darr¨ (1993) and was nominated for a Filmfare Best Villain Award. He unfortunatly did not get the award that year, but the year after, with his performance in ¨Anjaam¨ (1994) Shahrukh marked his name in the Yash Raj home with ¨Darr¨ and played in more box office hits after. He won his first Filmfare Best Actor Award in 1993 for ¨Baazigar¨. In 1995 he received his second Filmfare Best Actor Award for ¨Dilwale Dulhania La Jayenge¨, which was produced by Aditya Chopra.
1996 was a disappointing year for Khan as all his movies released that year failed to do well at the box office, but 1997 made up for all of it. Yash Chopra´s ¨Dil To Pagal Hai¨ was that year's second highest grossing movie, and he won his third Filmfare Best Actor Award. Earlier that year he booked succes with the movies ¨Pardes¨ and ¨Yess Boss¨
Ever since 1997 Shaharukh only climbed higher in his stature as an actor. He played in several box office hits with several well known names, like Aditya Chopra, Farah Khan and Karan Johar. He had no more challenges set for him until he decided to start producing himself.
Shahrukh turned producer when he set up a production company called Dreamz Unlimited with good friends Juhi Chawla and Aziz Mirza in 1999. The first two of the films he produced and starred in ¨Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani¨(2000) and ¨Asoka¨ (2001) were box office failures. However, his third film, as a producer and star, ¨Chalte Chalte¨ (2003), was the first box office hit from his production house.
In 2004, he set up another production company called Red Chillies Entertainment and produced and starred in ¨Main Hoon Na¨, which was another hit at the box office. In 2005 he produced and starred in the fantasy film ¨Paheli¨, which was a box office failure, but it was India's official entry to the Oscars for a nomination for Best Foreign Film, but it did not pass the final selection. That same year he also co-produced the supernatural horror film¨Kaal¨, with Karan Johar and performed an item number for the film with Malaika Arora Khan. ¨Kaal¨ was moderately successful at the box office. But he hit jackpot with his latest release ¨Om Shanti Om¨ (2007) , which he produced as well as starred in. It was a box office hit nationally and internationally. In 2008 Shahrukh made his childhood dream come true, well sort of, he wanted to be a football player or a cricket player when he was a young boy, and now Red Chillies Entertainment can call themselves proud owner of the IPL cricket team Kolkata Knight Riders.
But besides acting, producing and even managing a cricket team, Shahrukh still finds time to do some presenting for TV. In 2007, he replaced Amitabh Bachchan as the host of the third series of the popular game show ¨Kaun Banega Crorepati¨, the Indian version of ¨Who wants to be a Millionaire¨. On April 25th 2008, Shahrukh began hosting the game show ¨Kya Aap Panchvi Pass Se Tez Hain¨, the Indian version of ¨Are you smarter than a Fifth Grader?¨
Shahrukh Khan became world´s best known brandname throughout the years. He is world´s greatest artist with a fanbase bigger than Tom Cruise. He may not be the best payed actor for commercials, but he is the only actor with more endorsements than any other in the industry. He is the only celebrity who was approached by Nokia to be a spokesperson for the mobile phone company and now he´s one of 3 Indians mentioned in the latest Fobes list (2008).
Nejla Karatas
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