Since the trend of keeping box-office gross records has become the norm, actors’ stardom is measured by how much their films earn at the box office. Many say that box-office draw shows a star’s pull with the audience. So naturally, the more one actor’s films earn, the bigger the star they are. That is true in Hollywood, where names like Robert Downey Jr, Tom Cruise, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Richard Burton have historically been the highest-grossing actors. But in India, a few stars complicate this calculation by virtue of their successful careers in the West. Their Hollywood ventures, which earn in dollars and pounds, allow them to leapfrog the biggest stars back home, including even the three Khans.
Cinema’s most successful Khan
The three Khans – Shah Rukh, Salman Khan, and Aamir Khan – have been the biggest names in Hindi cinema for over three decades. Since Amitabh Bachchan took a backseat in the early 90s, these three actors surpassed established leading men like Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dutt to become the top-billed stars in Bollywood. Three decades on, they remain at the top, only briefly challenged by the likes of Akshay Kumar and Hrithik Roshan. Yet their box-office draw pales in comparison to that of one man, also a Khan.
The late Irrfan Khan remains the highest-grossing Indian actor. In a career that spanned three decades, Irrfan appeared in films that grossed an astounding $4 billion worldwide. This is largely on the back of four Hollywood blockbusters that he was a part of – Jurassic World, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Life of Pi, and Slumdog Millionaire. Over the course of his career, Irrfan worked in several international films and was easily the most recognised Indian actor globally. In Rupee terms, his Hollywood films earned a little over ₹21,000 crore from 2006 (The Namesake) to 2016 (Inferno). The Indian films he was part of also earned over ₹1000 crore, with titles like Piku and Gunday surpassing ₹100 crore. The former was his biggest desi hit, grossing ₹141 crore ($23 million) at the box office.
How Irrfan trumped the three Khans
Shah Rukh Khan is the most successful leading man in Bollywood history. The films he has appeared in have earned just under ₹10000 crore. Salman Khan follows with over ₹7500 crore gross, and Aamir brings up the rear with ₹7000 crore. But unlike Irrfan, the three actors have almost always been lead stars in their films (with rare exceptions, such as extended cameos like Salman in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai or Shah Rukh in Shakti: The Power). Irrfan, however, was a supporting actor in Hollywood, and his biggest hits were led by other stalwarts like Chris Pratt, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Hanks.
Irrfan’s stellar career
One of the finest Indian actors, Irrfan, began his acting journey in 1987 with the TV show Shrikant. He had small roles in films like Salaam Bombay and Ek Doctor Ki Maut after this. The 90s were a period of struggle for the actor in films, even as he found success on TV with shows like Chandrakanta. His breakthrough in films came with Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Haasil in 2003, which marked a golden period of critically acclaimed projects such as Maqbool, Paan Singh Tomar, Billu, 7 Khoon Maaf, and Haider. He also tasted box office success with films like Life in a Metro, New York, Gunday, and Billu. He battled cancer in his 50s and passed away in 2020 at the age of 53.
