My Name Is Khan

***My Name Is Khan***, also abbreviated as ***MNIK***, is a 2010 Hindi-language social drama film directed by Karan Johar and written by Shibani Bathija. It was produced by Hiroo Yash Johar and Gauri Khan under their production companies, Dharma Productions and Red Chillies Entertainment, respectively, in association with Fox Star Studios and Fox Searchlight Pictures. The film stars Shah Rukh Khan as Rizwan Khan, an autistic Muslim, and Kajol as Mandira, his Hindu wife with a son from her previous marriage. Set in the United States, the plot revolves around Rizwan, who faces Islamophobic discrimination after the September 11 attacks. This discrimination leads to the murder of his stepson, killed in a racist fight against older high schoolers. His wife, Mandira, Sameer's mother, blames Rizwan, and he consequently sets out on a journey to meet president of the country and absolve himself.

*My Name Is Khan* marked Karan Johar's departure from his usual romantic narratives. With this film, he decided to experiment with the social genre, taking Islamophobia as its subject in order to spread awareness about Islam and cover general misconceptions against the religion, which has been commonly associated with terrorism. Additionally, Karan Johar covered Asperger syndrome and, with Bathija, did extensive research for the condition. Principal photography began in December 2008, taking place in India and the United States, and finished in October 2009; Ravi K. Chandran taking the position as the cinematographer, and the film was subsequently edited by Deepa Bhatia. The film's soundtrack, composed by the trio Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, met with positive reviews from music critics and emerged as a financial success.

*My Name Is Khan* has been studied in scholarly circles for its cinematic portrayal of Asperger syndrome and Islamophobia. The film premiered in the United Arab Emirates on 10 February 2010 and was internationally released on 12 February 2010. Upon release, *My Name Is Khan* received highly positive reviews from both domestic and international critics, with particular praise directed towards its direction and the leads' performances. It grossed ₹1.93 billion (US$24 million) worldwide, becoming the second-highest-grossing Indian film of the year, against the production costs of ₹500 million (US$6.3 million).

A recipient of several accolades, *My Name Is Khan* led the 56th Filmfare Awards with 10 nominations, including Best Film and Best Music Director (Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy), and won 3 awards **–** Best Director (Karan Johar), Best Actor (Khan) and Best Actress (Kajol).

## Plot

Rizwan Khan, a Muslim, grew up with his brother, Zakir, and his widowed mother, Razia, in a middle-class family in Borivali, Mumbai. His autism leads to special tutoring from a reclusive scholar and extra attention from his mother, all which leads to a heightened level of jealousy from Zakir, who eventually leaves his family for a life in San Francisco. Despite this, Zakir sponsors Rizwan to come and live with him after their mother's death. Zakir's wife Haseena diagnoses Rizwan as having Asperger syndrome. Rizwan also begins to work for Zakir's. He meets Hindu woman Mandira and her young son Sameer, born from a previous marriage. Despite Zakir's uncertainty, they marry and live in the fictional Banville, adopting Rizwan's surname as theirs. They also live next door to the Garrick family; Sam is close to their young son, Reese.

The Khans' perfect existence gets disrupted following the September 11 attacks. Mark goes to cover the war in Afghanistan but dies there. At the same time, the Khans begins to experience the post 9/11 prejudice, and Reese begins to turn against Sam. Their rivalry causes an eventual fight on a soccer field, where four older students attack Sam. One of them kicks a soccer ball at Sam, rupturing his spleen and killing him. The gang then silences Reese by threatening to beat him up if he tells the authorities about it. A grieving Mandira blames Rizwan, stating that Sam died solely because of Rizwan's surname. Consequently, when Rizwan asks what he can do to help, Mandira sarcastically tells him that to be back together, he has to tell the people and President of the United States that his name is Khan and he is not a terrorist.

Rizwan, taking her seriously, thus sets out on a road trip to first meet President George W. Bush and later President-elect Barack Obama. He travels to the fictional Wilhemina, Georgia, and befriends Mama Jenny and her son Joel. While at a mosque in Los Angeles, he overhears violent rhetoric from a doctor, Faisal, who is quoting religious texts, and defies angrily Faisal's statements before walking out to drop a message for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). While waiting in a crowd to meet President Bush, he says, "My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist!", repeatedly. He is arrested due to misinterpretation as "I am a terrorist."

Rizwan is interrogated as a terrorist suspect but is released after a media campaign by Indian student reporters Raj, Komal and Bobby Ahuja, who prove his innocence by revealing his attempts to inform the FBI about Faisal. After his release, he returns to the hurricane-hit Wilhemina to help Mama Jenny, Joel, and everyone there, attracting media attention. Reese, seeing Rizwan on TV, finally confesses to Mandira his knowledge of what happened to Sam, and reveals the identity of the boys who killed him. She informs Detective Garcia, who has been assisting her on the case, and the boys, including Reese, are arrested. Mandira asks leniency for Reese, for his mother, Sarah. Sarah then calls Mandira to thank her and asks her to forgive Rizwan, saying "I lost my husband to hate, please don't lose him".

Mandira joins Rizwan in Georgia. At the moment she arrives, Rizwan is stabbed by one of Faisal's followers, and is hospitalized. Rizwan survives and meets Obama, who tells him: "Your name is Khan and you are not a terrorist."

## Cast

* Shah Rukh Khan as Rizwan Khan
	+ Tanay Chheda as young Rizwan Khan
* Kajol as Mandira Khan
* Jennifer Echols as Mama Jenny
* Michael William Arnold as Younger Reese Garrick
* Kenton Duty as Older Reese Garrick
* Katie Amanda Keane as Sarah Garrick
* Dominic Renda as Mark Garrick
* Benny Nieves as Detective Garcia
* Christopher B. Duncan as Barack Obama
* Yuvaan Makar as Younger Sameer Khan
* Arjan Aujla as Older Sameer Khan
* Sheetal Menon as Radha
* Arjun Mathur as Raj
* Sugandha Garg as Komal
* Jimmy Sheirgill as Zakir Khan
* Navneet Nishan as Rita Singh
* Zarina Wahab as Razia Khan
* Arif Zakaria as Faisal Rahman
* Sonya Jehan as Hasina Khan
* Vinay Pathak as Jitesh
* Parvin Dabas as Bobby Ahuja
* Sumeet Raghavan as an attacker
* Adrian Kali Turner as Funny Hair Joel
* Juan Simmons as Airport Security 1
* James Seaman as Airport Security 2
* Christine Q. Nguyen as Chinese American Passenger
* Kevin Oestenstad as Officer John Marshall
* Len Anderson IV as Airport Officer 3
* Dominic Flores as Airport Officer 4
* Sarfaraz as Abdul Workshop
* Meena Sonavane as Lady at Ganpati Procession
* Abhin Mudgal as Zakir Khan(2)
* Mukesh Tripathi as Altaf Painter
* Aryan Desai as Kid Bully
* Arnav Chhapwale as Zakir Khan(4)
* Kyle Hamon as Jim
* Shane Harper as Tim
* Marquis Scott as Tyler
* Jeremy Kilpatrick as Jimmy
* Aubrey K. Miller as Unnamed female student (Uncredited)

## Trivia

* James Cameron praised Shah Rukh's performance and stated it as his favorite Bollywood film.
* During a publicity outing, Shah Rukh Khan came to the US but was detained at customs for over an hour. People first thought this was a PR stunt but it was revealed that it was not. The film's producers were furious that their star was treated so shabbily, not unlike Khan's character in the film.
* Shah Rukh Khan remained in character at home.
* Kareena Kapoor lost the lead role in favor of Karan Johar's favorite actress, Kajol.
* To give his 100% in movie, SRK used to spend time with the people having asperger's syndrome, used to watch the videos and used to read the books related to that mental illness to learn how they behave, talk and walk.
* Zakir's house in San Francisco is the same house used for the exterior shots of the Tanners' home in Full House (1987).
* Shahrukh's character was compared to Dustin Hoffman's character in "Rain Man" and Tom Hanks' character in "Forrest Gump".
* Aamir Bashir was originally offered a role in the movie, but he was denied a visa to the USA. Jimmy Shergill was cast instead.
* Director Karan Johar and scriptwriter Shibani Bathija interviewed Chris and Gisela Slater-Walker, the co-authors of the book that inspired the romantic relationship in the first part of the film.
* This was Kyle Hamon's last acting role.
* This was Arjan Aujla's first acting role.
* This was Yuvaan Makar's only acting role.
* The New Orleans Inspired, Georgia flood sequence shot in drought-stricken Mumbai used 20 tankers of water daily for the 10-day shoot (the capacity of each tanker truck is approximately 12,000 liters (3,170 gallons), and a family of four requires approximately 360 liters (95.1 gallons) a day. Midway through shooting the flood sequence, however, the drought broke.
* Shabana Azmi was originally given the role of Rizwan's mother, but she was forced to withdraw from the movie when Shah Rukh Khan's shoulder injury delayed the shooting schedule.
* While shooting at Filmistan Studio, a huge water snake was spotted. The snake was unharmed and was let go. The snake however appeared again while SRK was shooting a water scene. Panic followed, and Shahrukh was immediately pulled out of the water.
* While shooting for the film, Khan suffered from severe pain in the neck and headaches which were caused by the expressions and posture of Rizwan Khan. His character in the film who has Asperger's Syndrome, has a way of jutting his neck out at a particular angle and wears an expression which has his eyebrows raised in every scene. As he would shoot for hours, he'd get severe migraines.
* In 2017, Khan was honoured at the San Francisco Film festival for his role in the film, seven years after the release.
* Tanay Chheda was chosen to portray Shah Rukh Khan's character as a child living in the Borivali section of Mumbai because he resembles Shah Rukh Khan and because he is recognizable to an international audience after portraying young Jamal in "Slumdog Millionaire" (2009).
* Karan Johar's first directorial to not have the title starting with "K".
* On 1 February 2010, Khan and Kajol became the first Indian movie stars to ring the opening bell of the New York stock exchange NASDAQ. They were invited by Fox Searchlight Pictures to do so as part of their promotion for the film.
* It was initially titled as "Khan" but it is being said that Karan Johar changed it to "My Name is Khan" to make it more impactful and make a connection with the audience.
* Shahrukh Khan also appeared on "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross" as part of its promotion in the UK, becoming only the second Indian after Shilpa Shetty to do so.
* Director Rajkumar Hirani was planning a film called Munnabhai Chale America, but had to drop the idea because it's script turned out to be very similar to the story of My Name Is Khan (2010).
* Karan Johar's first directorial to not feature Rani Mukherjee.
* The trailer of the film was released at the premiere of the Hollywood film Avatar (2009).
* Reebok created an entire MNIK footwear and apparel collection to promote the film.
* Tanay Chheda had earlier worked with Shah Rukh Khan in "Don" (2006).
* Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra worked as Assistant Directors in this film and then they both later went to get launched by Karan Johar in Student Of The Year (2012)
* Shahrukh would mention the dialogue from the film as "My name is Rahul and I'm not a terrorist" in his film "Chennai Express" (2013).
* The website eBay auctioned the tickets for the film's screening at the Berlin Film Festival for a record price of £1,000 (INR60,000) each. All the tickets were sold out in just five seconds.
* R.Madhavan was offered the film but declined the role due to his schedule. Jimmy Shergill was then signed.
* R Mahadvan was offered the role of Jimmy Shergill at the same time he was offered 3 idiots 2009 and choose that film as he felt that role was much better.
* Shah Rukh Khan and Jimmy Sheirgill reunited 10 years after Mohabbatein(2000) which was under Yash Raj Films.
* Christopher B. Duncan was chosen to portray President Barack Obama because he had portrayed him earlier on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno".
* Both Kenton Duty and Shane Harper (who has a small appearance in the film) would later appear in Disney sitcoms "Shake it Up" and "Good Luck Charlie" respectively.
* Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol's sixth film together.
* Shah Rukh Khan's first film of the decade(2010-2019).
* With this film, SRK and Karan Johar have inked a deal with Fox studios to distribute the film worldwide at a deal of around 98 crore.
* Karan Johar had difficulties finding a mosque to film in. He finally shot the two-day scene with Shah Rukh Khan on the set of a mosque constructed at "The Club" in Andheri.
* The film generated a great deal of publicity for itself due to three main reasons: first, the multiple political controversies surrounding the film and its lead actor; second, Khan's presence in the film (he was last seen in a leading actor role in December 2008, when "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi" was released); and third, the reunion of the "golden pair" of Khan and Kajol, who last appeared together in the film "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham" in 2001.
* The first look of the film was unveiled at a grand function at Mumbai by Johar, Khan and Kajol and was then be beamed across 70 countries worldwide on the Star TV Network.
* It marked the first instance of a film using the Roadblock advertising technique to market a film, in which the three-minute trailer was aired on all leading television channels simultaneously.
* The makers of the film made various brand tie-ups to for the promotion of the film. Dish TV entered into a strategic marketing alliance with Fox Star and spend approximately Rs4 crore in a month-long 360 degree integrated marketing campaign which ran across all India to co-promote the brand and the movie.
* Kajol Worked With Jimmy Sheirgill for the first time.
* Pallavi Sharda's debut.