On Tuesday (September 23, 2025), Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was conferred with his first National Award for best actor for his performance in the Atlee-directorial Jawan. He did, of course, share the best actor honours with Vikrant Massey who put on a standout act in 12th Fail. With this award, Shah Rukh broke his long-standing jinx of not winning a National Award and also added a new dimension to Jawan's success in Indian cinema history.
So, what makes this award special to Jawan's legacy as a film? It is for the first time in Indian cinema that an actor has achieved an Industry Hit and best actor National Award for the same film. No actor in Indian cinema has had this achievement before. Generally, commercial films don't get a lot of recognition at the National Film awards or at least, that was the case till a few years ago. In fact, actors seldom got the country's highest honours for such flicks and Allu Arjun in 2023 was the first instance of a superstar getting awarded for doing an out-and-out commercial role. However, Pushpa despite being a blockbuster, wasn't a record-breaker although its sequel shredded the box office records with aplomb a couple of years later.
Jawan released on 7th September 2023 and was Shah Rukh's second release of the year after Pathaan which had set Bollywood records for being the highest-grossing Hindi film of all time. Having not had a release from 2019-2022, Shah Rukh set 2023 ablaze as Jawan eclipsed the records of Pathaan, both in India and overseas, to zoom past Rs 1000 crore worldwide. Jawan became the highest-grossing Hindi film in both territories and also set new benchmarks at the box office. Most of those did get broken with the arrival of Pushpa 2 but Jawan dominated 2023 with all the records. With successive all-time blockbuster, Shah Rukh made a rousing comeback to the big screen after his self-imposed exile following the debacle of Zero in 2018.
Now, with the best actor National Award, Shah Rukh has added a cherry on top to remember 2023 as a truly historical year in his career and that of Indian cinema.
List of records that Shah Rukh Khan has with Jawan
1) First Indian actor to have two record-breaking films in the same year
2) First Indian actor to win a National Award and have a best actor award for the same film
3) First Indian actor to register two Rs 1000 crore grossers in the same year