Shah Rukh Khan Went From the 1989 Army Serial Fauji to a Padma Shri, the Legion of Honour, Two 1,000-Crore Films and the 2025 National Film Award for Best Actor

On 23 September 2025, President Droupadi Murmu conferred the 71st National Film Awards in New Delhi, and Shah Rukh Khan received the Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus) for best actor for Jawan, an award he shared with Vikrant Massey of 12th Fail. The Hitavada reported it as Khan’s first National Film Award for acting. It came after a Padma Shri in 2005, two French honours, a career award from the Locarno Film Festival and, in 2023, two films, Pathaan and Jawan, that Bollywood Hungama lists above ₹1,000 crore (10 billion rupees) in worldwide gross.

A Doordarshan serial in 1989, then Deewana

Fauji premiered on Doordarshan, the state broadcaster, in 1989 and ran for 13 episodes, according to Hollywood Reporter India. It followed an Indian Army commando regiment through training and then into a war against an unnamed enemy. Colonel Raj Kapoor directed it and shot it. Khan played Lieutenant Abhimanyu Rai.

Hollywood Reporter India quotes a 1992 India Today interview in which Khan said, “In six-and-a-half hours I became the nation’s heartthrob.” After the serial, the Mumbai production company Iskra, run by Kundan Shah, Aziz Mirza and Saeed Mirza, called him to Mumbai and cast him in Umeed, Wagle Ki Duniya and Circus, the same article says.

Deewana was his first film. It opened on 25 June 1992, Raj Kanwar directed it, and Rishi Kapoor and Divya Bharti starred in it with Khan, according to Bollywood Hungama. India TV reports that Khan’s performance won him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut.

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and a morning show that kept going

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) opened on 20 October 1995, AFP reported on its 30th anniversary. Agency copy carried by Millennium Post in 2015 says Aditya Chopra made it as his first film as director, that his father Yash Chopra produced it, and that Khan played Raj opposite Kajol. The same report says it won 10 Filmfare Awards at the 1996 ceremony, including best film, best actor, best actress and best director.

Mumbai’s Maratha Mandir cinema has shown it ever since. The Daily Star’s 2015 report dates the first show there to 19 October 1995, a day before the release date AFP gives. By 19 February 2015 the run had reached 1,009 weeks.

That day the cinema held what was announced as the last show, with an audience of 210. The theatre had asked Yash Raj Films, the film’s producer, to move the morning show from 11:30 am to 9:15 am so that it could fit in new releases, and Yash Raj Films said in a statement that the two sides had mutually decided to end the run. The managing director, Manoj Desai, said that of the cinema’s 1,105 seats usually only 100 to 200 were occupied.

The ending did not hold. AFP reported in October 2025 that an uproar in 2015 had kept the film in its daily slot, a detail it attributed to the Hindustan Times. By that report the film was playing at 11:30 am every day and had run for more than 1,500 weeks, against the five-year run of Sholay at another Mumbai theatre. Desai told AFP that the weekday audience is mostly college students and young couples, with about 500 people on Sundays.

A Padma Shri, a French order and the Legion of Honour

The Padma list that Outlook published on 25 January 2005 named 96 recipients. It places Khan among the 57 Padma Shri awardees, under art, from Maharashtra.

France honoured him twice. In June 2007 the French ambassador, Dominique Girard, announced in a written statement that Khan had been made an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, citing his long career and his part in building Indo-French cooperation in cinema. The Himalayan Times quoted Girard calling him “an actor of great talent and unmatched popularity.”

On 1 July 2014, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius presented him with the Legion of Honour at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai, at the rank of Chevalier (Knight), for his contribution to cinema, Gulf Times reported. Khan said at the ceremony, “There are different moments in life that make you feel that you are on the right track. This is one such moment.” Fabius praised his “talent and generosity, which arouse the enthusiasm of a vast audience across the world.”

Three releases in 2023

Pathaan opened on 25 January 2023 with Siddharth Anand directing, according to Bollywood Hungama. Bollywood Hungama lists its worldwide gross at ₹1,050.3 crore, made up of ₹654.28 crore in India and ₹396.02 crore overseas, and calls it an “All Time Blockbuster.”

Jawan, directed by Atlee, opened on 7 September 2023. Bollywood Hungama lists its India net collection at ₹643.87 crore and its worldwide gross at ₹1,148.32 crore, and gives it the same verdict, “All Time Blockbuster.” Khan plays two roles in it, an Army officer, Vikram Rathore, and his son Azad, a jailor, according to The Hitavada.

Dunki, directed by Rajkumar Hirani, followed on 21 December 2023. Bollywood Hungama lists its worldwide gross at ₹470.6 crore and rates its performance “Average.”

Bollywood Hungama notes that its figures are compiled from various sources and may be approximate, so the numbers above are that site’s. tuput’s fact-check of Dhurandhar gives attributed box-office figures for another recent Hindi release.

Locarno in 2024 and the National Film Award in 2025

On 10 August 2024, at the 77th Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, Khan received the festival’s career award, the Pardo alla Carriera, on the Piazza Grande, Keystone-SDA reported. The programme included a screening of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas (2002).

The 71st National Film Awards cover films certified in 2023. All India Radio reported that they were announced in New Delhi on 1 August 2025, with Ashutosh Gowariker chairing the feature film jury. The Press Information Bureau’s list of awardees gives the best actor in a leading role award to Khan for Jawan and to Massey for 12th Fail, with a Rajat Kamal listed for the category. The Hitavada reports that Gowariker praised Khan for “delivering a powerhouse performance.”

Elsewhere in the awards, according to All India Radio, 12th Fail took best feature film, Rani Mukerji took best actress for Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway, and the prize for best popular film providing wholesome entertainment went to Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. That category went to Rang De Basanti for 2005.

President Murmu conferred the awards in New Delhi on 23 September 2025, All India Radio reported, and Mohanlal received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award at the same ceremony.