Shakib Khan born 28 March 1979 also known by the initialism SK, is a Bangladeshi film actor, producer, occasional singer, film organiser and media personality who works in Bengali films, both in Bangladesh and West Bengal. In his career spanning about two decades, Khan has been the propeller of the contemporary film industry Dhallywood. He is popularly known in the media as “King Khan”, “King of Dhallywood” and “Number One Shakib Khan” (initialism as No1SK), also referred to as “Bhaijaan of Dhallywood” (in reference to his 2018 film Bhaijaan Elo Re). Currently he is the highest-paid actor in Bangladesh.
Following his debut in Sohanur Rahman Sohan’s 1999 action romantic Ananta Bhalobasha (Eternal Love), Khan did not lead to widespread fame. Subsequently, Khan established himself as one of the most successful actors in Bengali cinema. The Badiul Alam Khokon-directed Priya Amar Priya (2008) in which Khan played a college student with a careless attitude, was a major commercial success in his career with grossed ৳150 million (US$1.8 million) and become the second highest-grossing film and earned him highest remuneration. His Shikari’s new look garnered him praised from the audience and critics and was declared a blockbuster at the box office, and become the highest-grossing Bengali film of 2016. His 2017 success is Swatta and Nabab. Where Swatta won numerous accolades including five National Film Awards, six Bachsas Awards, two Meril-Prothom Alo Awards and earned his fourth National Film Award for Best Actor and Nabab in which he played an intelligence agent from Bangladesh and become the highest-grossing film of 2017 and become one of the highest-grossing Bangladeshi and West Bengal film of all time. His energetic performance and re-emergence in the film were praised by both critics and audiences. In 2019 Khan was paid up ৳5 million for the film Nook and become the highest-paid entertainer in the history of Bangladeshi cinema.[b] His own production Password grossed ৳110 million (US$1.3 million) on its fourth day at the box office, which is the fourth highest-grossing ever.
His other notable films are the drama film Shuva (2006), where he played a village boy and earned him highly praised from critics, a romantic films such as Amar Praner Swami (2007) and Bolbo Kotha Bashor Ghore (2009) earned him the highest accolades, romantic-comedy Adorer Jamai (2011), action-romantic Don Number One (2012), political thriller Rajneeti (2017), which is highly considered the politics of Bangladesh and created controversy with Khan used a phone number in the film that eventually turned out to be that of a rickshaw driver. That driver later sued him for $60,000 (£45,000) stating that the use of his number let millions call his number searching for Shakib Khan[20] (See Controversy section for further details). Romantic action films such as Bhaijaan Elo Re (2018), Chalbaaz (2018) and supernatural-thiller Naqaab (2018) earned him worldwide recognition, political thriller Bir (2020) and legal drama Nabab LLB (2021), where he played an advocate and became the first Dhallywood film to released any OTT platform. In 2011, he made his debut as a playback singer in the film Moner Jala. In 2014, he made his debut as a producer with the film Hero: The Superstar and subsequently produced films like Password (2019), and Bir (2020).
Khan has earned numerous accolades in his long career, including four National Film Awards, eight Meril Prothom Alo Awards,[21] three Bachsas Awards and five CJFB Performance Awards. He won his first National Film Awards for Best Actor in 2010 for the film Bhalobaslei Ghor Bandha Jay Na, where he played Surja Khan, an independent young man who studied law. His second National Film Award for his portrayal of a boy who deeply love his mother and got separated from his mother when he was quite young in Shahin-Sumon duo’s Khodar Pore Ma (2012). He was noted for his performances in SA Haque Alik’s romance film Aro Bhalobashbo Tomay (2015) and Hashibur Reza Kallol’s romance drama film Swatta (2017) and also won third and fourth National Film Awards respectively.