Television viewers freaked out on the street-smart Abhimanyu Roy in the Doordarshan serial Fauji in the late ‘80s, then watched him through Circus. But nobody thought that the young actor from Delhi with an unruly mop of hair will become the biggest and the most enduring star of the 1990s and the first decade of the new millennium. The actor, Shah Rukh Khan, has been dominating the scene for more than a decade and half! The first actor to make a successful transition from the small to the big screen, Shah Rukh didn’t restrict himself to playing the stereotypical holier-than-thou hero in films. He took chances, dared very early in his career to play a negative roles. In Baazigar (1993), he played a character who goes to the extent of killing the woman he loves, and emerged with flying colours. He did it again in Yash Chopra’s Darr (1994) in a role which Aamir Khan had turned down.  With Darr, SRK created a lasting niche for himself in the Yash Chopra camp, which resulted in his being part of a series of blockbusters, like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Dil To Pagal Hai , Mohabbatein, Veer Zara and Chak De ! India. A highly underrated actor because of his tendency to play to the gallery, he has often shocked his detractors with some outstanding performances. In Mohabbatein, in a brilliantly underplayed role, he stood up to a formidable Amitabh Bachchan. He was equally brilliant in Swadesh and Chak De! India where he was brilliant histrionically.

SRK’s improvised projection of Devdas, a character immortalized by the legendary Dilip Kumar, might have raised the hackles of critics, but the fact that Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas was the only ‘big’ film to succeed at the box office in 2002 was a measure of the response the actor elicited from his audience. He bravely reinterpreted Bachchan’s Don of 1978 and got away with it with remarkable success in Farhan Akhtar’s remake, Don:The Chase Begins (2006). He showed the same élan in treading Bachchan’s huge footsteps in the television game show, Kaun Banrega Crorepati?.

SRK’s run of success at the boxoffice over the last decade and half has been stunning. His list of blockbusters includes DDLJ, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Karan Arjun, Darr,Yes Boss, Pardes, Dil To Pagal Hai ,Josh, K3G , Devdas, Chalte Chalte, Kal Ho Na Ho, Main Hoon Na, Veer-Zaara and the more recent Chak De ! India and Om Shanti Om. As he surmised with characteristic candour, he is the find of the 90s. And also its most exciting star. SRK made a formidable pair with the brilliant Kajol, to be voted the romantic pair of the last millennium in a poll. The chemistry between the two gave a new dimension to screen pairing. His teaming with Juhi Chawla was no less significant. It extended beyond the screen to form a film production company. However, SRK’s foray into film production went awry in the beginning. The two films he had banked heavily on , Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani and Asoka, drew more flak than cash at the box-office. But he fought back with Chalte Chalte , Main Hoon Na and the recent mega hit Om Shaanti Om.