At the World Governments Summit in Dubai in February, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was asked why, despite his success, he had not made inroads into Hollywood.
Khan – often referred to as the “King of Bollywood” – replied in his typical self-deprecating humour: “I really wanted to be the next James Bond, but I think I'm too short. But of course, as a baddy, I’m brown enough.”
Estimated to be worth more than 63 billion rupees by Forbes India, Khan then added: “I've said this honestly, but nobody believes it – nobody’s ever offered me any crossover work of substance. I had conversations with people from the English and American film industries, but nobody's offered me any good work.”
While India's biggest star, now 58, has no immediate plans to cross over to western cinema, a whole new generation of actors has, with varying success. Here is a list of Bollywood stars who've tried their hand in Hollywood:
Ishaan Khatter
The latest star to go west, Khatter, 28, is a rising Bollywood actor, known for his diverse roles. While he's been in international productions including his debut film Beyond the Clouds (2017) and the Netflix and BBC series A Suitable Boy (2020), Khatter stars alongside Hollywood veterans Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber in the murder mystery series The Perfect Couple.
Based on the bestselling book of the same name, the Netflix show premiered on Thursday and centres on the wealthy Winbury family who host the wedding of their second son, Benji, at their oceanfront mansion. But when a dead body washes up on the beach, the family and all their guests become suspects.
Khatter plays Shooter Dival, the best man and childhood friend of Benji's. “There's a great joy in being able to bring two worlds together. And I'm so glad I had this opportunity, and I think it's a rare one and I'll cherish it,” he said recently at the London premiere of the show.
Alia Bhatt
One of the most popular stars in Bollywood, Bhatt's big Hollywood debut came in 2023 with the spy action thriller Heart of Stone, which premiered on Netflix. Bhatt played Keya Dhawan, a hacker who may or may not have good intentions.
Directed by Tom Harper, the film received middling reviews from critics but was one of Netflix's most-watched films in the second half of the year. Bhatt, meanwhile, leveraged her international appearances that year, making her debut at the Met Gala and also became the first Indian global ambassador for Gucci.
Ali Fazal
When it comes to roles in Hollywood films, Fazal, 37, has been the most consistent. He made his acting debut in 2008 with the US film The Other End of the Line, which was critically panned. He has since appeared in several high-profile productions, including the 2017 production Furious 7, which was extensively shot in Abu Dhabi, and Victoria & Abdul, in which he played the lead opposite Judi Dench.
Fazal, who plays one of the main characters in the acclaimed Prime Video series Mirzapur, was most recently seen in the 2022 murder mystery Death on the Nile and last year's Kandahar, with Gerard Butler in the lead.
Dhanush
The South Indian superstar made his Hollywood debut in the action thriller The Gray Man, which featured a star-studded cast including Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans and Ana de Armas. Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, who are known for their Marvel films, The Gray Man centres on Gosling's character, a CIA agent who goes on the run after discovering corrupt secrets about his superiors. Hot on his heels are some of the deadliest assassins from around the world, including Dhanush's Avik San.
Released in 2022, the film received mixed reviews but gained enough viewership numbers for Netflix to greenlight a sequel. Both Gosling and Dhanush are set to reprise their roles in the follow-up, with the Russo brothers even hinting at a spin-off film based on Avik San.
Randeep Hooda
Hooda made waves with his role in the 2020 Netflix action flick Extraction, facing off against Chris Hemsworth. The big-budget film is set in Dhaka and follows a mercenary, played by Hemsworth, who is tasked with rescuing the son of a drug lord who has been kidnapped by a rival gang.
Hooda plays the drug lord's head of security, who is on his own mission to rescue the boy, leading to a face-off with Hemsworth's character.
Extraction made history by becoming Netflix's most-viewed original film, with more than 99 million households streaming it in its first four weeks of release. A sequel, Extraction 2, was released last year, to even more success, although Hooda did not reprise his role. A third film in the franchise is in the works.
Anupam Kher
The veteran actor is the most prolific when it comes to Hollywood projects, having appeared in many popular and acclaimed films.
Kher became a known face internationally when he starred in 2002 film Bend It Like Beckham. He's since appeared in several TV shows and movies in Hollywood including the medical drama ER in 2011 and the Oscar-winning Silver Linings Playbook in 2012, in which he starred alongside Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. Kher also had a recurring role in the medical drama New Amsterdam, which ran for five seasons from 2018 to 2023.
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
Already a massive star in India then, Rai Bachchan made her Hollywood debut with the British production Bride and Prejudice in 2004. While the Jane Austen adaptation received mixed reviews, it was a commercial success, leading to a starring role in The Mistress of Spices the following year, which was panned by critics.
Rai Bachchan's other international projects, including Provoked (2006), The Last Legion (2007) and The Pink Panther 2 (2009), in which she starred alongside Steve Martin, also received largely negative reviews. She's however capitalised on her international exposure, becoming an ambassador for L'Oreal in 2003. Her partnership with the beauty brand brings her annually to the Cannes Film Festival, where she continues to be one of the star attractions.
Om Puri
Often regarded as one of the finest actors in India, the late Puri, who died in 2017, was known for his versatility, appearing in films across the Hindi-speaking Bollywood as well as in multiple Indian languages.
Puri's first notable international project was City of Joy (1992), in which he played a villager who moves to the city of Calcutta (now Kolkata) in search of a better life. There, he strikes up an unusual friendship with an American surgeon, played by the late Patrick Swayze, who arrives in the city seeking spiritual enlightenment.
Puri also received acclaim for his performance in 2019 film East is East, in which he played a Pakistani immigrant married to an English woman, trying to raise a mixed-ethnicity family in England. His other Hollywood projects include Wolf (1994), starring Jack Nicholson; The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) with Val Kilmer; Charlie Wilson's War (2007), which stars Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts; and The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014) in which he starred opposite Helen Mirren.
Irrfan Khan
Khan's untimely death in 2020 at the age of 53 from cancer shocked fans in India and the international film community. After making a mark in the 2001 British film The Warrior, he successfully straddled Indian and international productions, appearing in many acclaimed films.
Popularly known globally for his role in the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire (2008), Khan went on to play supporting roles in many Hollywood blockbusters including The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), Life of Pi (2012), Jurassic World (2015) and Inferno (2016).
Khan also won acclaim for his role in The Namesake, the 2006 adaptation of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri's novel of the same name.
Deepika Padukone
One of the highest-paid actors in India, Padukone made her Hollywood debut in the 2017 action thriller xXx: Return of Xander Cage, starring Vin Diesel. She played Serena Unger, a former CIA agent and love interest of Diesel's Xander Cage.
While she has not appeared in any more Hollywood projects, Padukone's status as a global star has continued to rise. In 2022, she became the first Indian to be named ambassador for Louis Vuitton. That same year, she was named a jury member at the Cannes Film Festival. And last year, she was named one of the presenters at the Oscar awards, where she introduced the record-breaking South Indian film RRR, which went on to win Best Original Song for Naatu Naatu.
Priyanka Chopra Jonas
The most successful crossover star to date, Chopra Jonas was a bona fide star in India when she was cast as the lead in the hit US show Quantico in 2015. The popularity of the show, which ran for three seasons until 2018, led Chopra Jonas to move permanently to the US, where she's become a top Hollywood star.
She's since starred in movies such as Baywatch (2017), A Kid Like Jake (2018), Isn't it Romantic (2019), We Can be Heroes (2020) and The Matrix Resurrections (2021). Last year, she appeared in the Prime Video show Citadel, opposite Richard Madden, and the romantic comedy Love Again alongside Sam Heughen.
Chopra Jonas, who married singer Nick Jonas in 2018, has also produced many acclaimed films through her Purple Pebble Pictures production company. Two of their productions, The White Tiger in 2021 and the 2022 documentary To Kill a Tiger, earned nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Documentary Feature Film respectively at the Oscar awards.
Chopra Jonas will next be seen in the action comedy Heads of State alongside Idris Elba and John Cena.
