,Whatever I want, I can get it, I can win in life“(I get what I want and win in life). A song filmed on Shah Rukh Khan begins like this. This song is ‘Chand Taare Tod Laun’ from ‘Yes Boss’. Incidentally, Shah Rukh’s house Mannat is also mentioned in this song – but it was not his house then. Today Shah Rukh Khan has made this song come true and is actually ruling the world (‘I will touch the whole world, Actor included in Hurun India Rich List Its total assets are Rs 7,300 crore.

For a middle-class person, even imagining that amount would be a challenge. While even thinking of one crore might be difficult for many, taking it to Rs 1000 crore is a huge deal and here we are talking about Rs 7,300 crore. Beyond imagination, isn’t it? But, here’s a simpleton who achieved all this. Yes, Shah Rukh Khan was also a middle-class man who admitted to being pushed out on the road for not being able to pay rent and having his car seized by the bank for not being able to repay the loan. In fact, he also admitted that he and his family couldn’t afford his father’s medicine.

In an interview with Filmfare in 2013, Khan admitted, “I have seen the worst times. My father was dying and we couldn’t afford expensive injections. My aunt used to send them to him from London. But if the course was for 20 injections, we could administer only eight. So I will never know if he died because we didn’t have the money or he died because he had to.” In fact, he said that he has seen so much poverty that he no longer craves for money.

Khan said in the same interview, “I came from a place where there was very little to eat. I survived on watery daal. I was sent letters from school threatening to expel me because my fees were not paid. Mom and Dad would collect loose change lying under the mattress and pay for my education.” He further said, “Because I have seen so much poverty, I don’t crave money. I can spend it all in one go. My wife scolds me for it. I spend crores in one go – on films, for charity. You ask for money, and I will give it to you.”

Though he doesn’t mind spending like a ‘Baadshah’, as he is often called, he wants his children to never see the bad days he has seen. “The only fear is that my children should never be homeless. If you have a home and education, the world is at your feet. If you don’t have a job and money, at least you will have a roof to sleep and cry under. I have slept on the streets. There have been many times when I was thrown out of my house because we couldn’t pay the rent. I have been on the streets twice,” he had confessed.

Not only was he expelled from school and home for not being able to pay the EMIs, but his second car (and his first jeep) was also seized by the bank because he couldn’t pay the loan. Shah Rukh Khan had become an actor by then and was working in ‘Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman’. Juhi Chawla told in an interview that the bank people had snatched away her black gypsy., And he was heartbroken. This was when Chawla, who now co-owns KKR with the superstar, lent him one of his cars.

As luck would have it, he got a chance to drive a car again while shooting for ‘Trimurti’. He told ZoomTV in 2015, “Years later, when I was at a hill station shooting for ‘Trimurti’, I was being driven around in a car, and suddenly I realised that the car looked familiar to me. Apparently, they had sold cars in the lot and the car I was in was my car (which was taken away from me!). I used to ride in the car with Jackie (Shroff).” Now, Khan owns some of the best and most expensive cars.

For Khan, poverty is also a failure. In an interview with Hindustan Times that same year, he said, “I am really scared of failures. Coming from a lower middle-class family, I have seen a lot of failures. Poverty creates fear, stress and sometimes depression. I have seen my parents go through it. Having lost my father at a young age, I equated poverty with failure. I just didn’t want to be poor.”

In fact, it was the fear of poverty that made him sign many films that were rejected by others. “I signed films more out of fear of poverty than creative desire. Most of my early films were films made by other actors. Deewana (1992) was turned down by an actor called Armaan Kohli, Baazigar (1993) by Salman Khan and Darr (1993) by Aamir Khan. I did all this to avoid unemployment,” he admits. Thankfully, these were the films that made him big and a star, eventually paving the way for him to become a superstar.

In another interview, Shah Rukh Khan advised everyone not to romanticise poverty. “Don’t get philosophical until you’re rich. I used to be poor and I can tell you there’s nothing romantic about it,” he said in an interview with GQ India for the January 2017 issue. “When young people, friends, say they want to be great creative novelists, I advise them to become copywriters first, make a little money. Don’t be a struggling artist; be happy,” he added.

Perhaps it was this fear of failure that pushed him to make a comeback with a bang in 2023 with three big hits – ‘Jawaan’, ‘Pathan’ and ‘Dunky’. He was dropped after ‘Zero’ but he still tops Forbes’ list of top 10 highest-paid actors in India for 2024. He charges Rs 150-250 crore per film.

,I will become the greatest‘ This was another line from the same song we mentioned in the beginning. In fact, he is ‘King of kings, (with the king of kings)’all the wealth‘ And ‘all power‘, even after over three decades in the industry, and possibly India’s last superstar.