From our very first cover to 2016, Shah Rukh Khan has really come a long way. Known as the Baadshah of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan’s brilliance, coupled with his inimitable style and wit, has been wooing the audiences since over two decades now.

With DDLJ, which is also hailed as a cult classic, he catapulted to stardom and became the nation’s heartthrob after which there was no looking back. He’s played a variety of roles during his lifetime and has received widespread adulation from audiences of all age groups, which makes him the superstar that he is.

Also hailed as the romantic icon of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan will be next seen in Gauri Shinde’s Dear Zindagi alongside Alia Bhatt, in which he plays the role of a psychologist. So with the much-awaited film releasing this week, we celebrate Shah Rukh Khan’s MW journey through his covers.

February 2000

August 2003

“I have no problems with my image as a sensitive man, who is devout to his wife and children. I get hurt when people start spreading rumours about how faithful, or unfaithful I am to my wife or say I am shrewd, manipulative, a womanizer on the sly and bisexual. I sometimes do cry, when things hurt and I get depressed easily. I have never hidden my relationship with my wife, in fact I flaunt it. I want to grow old with the woman I have married, and take my responsibility as a dad very seriously.”

September 2006

Regarding the backlash for Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna: “First they tell me I play the same character in all my films and now when you attempt to do something different, they don’t like it. At the end of the day, it’s just a film. At least I see it like that. If they don’t like this one, there is always the next one.”

March 2010

“I want to remove the difference between art and commercial cinema, which is a big process and one in which I may fail. I also want to do things I have not done before, like play a superhero. It is damn tough..it is easier to get up in the morning and do your regular love story. But to do a superhero film, where you are constantly pushing yourself physically is very tough. But I want to do that, because I look at my people the age of my daughter as my new audience. They are my future investment if I want to continue being around even 15 years down the line, which I do.”

November 2014

“No offence to your magazine but the real world is not a man’s world. Showbiz is a man’s world, but real life? It’s women, all the way.”

“I’m a Delhi boy, and Delhi boys talk with their fists. Just because I’m a patient man doesn’t mean I’m Mr Goody.”

“I entered Bollywood in the wake of a deep personal loss, the passing of my father. The plan was to give it a year. Here I am, 20 years later, still manic, but happy.”