Through the ’90s and the aughts, we’ve all grown up on a steady diet of Raj and Rahul, the gentle and charismatic lover boys on screen, a welcome antithesis to the hyper-masculine Hindi film action heroes. But that’s the thing about Shah Rukh Khan — if he builds a signature style on the one hand, he is equally malleable on the other hand. In his next Pathaan, the superstar has transformed into a gun-toting spy who resurfaces after being caught in his last mission three years ago. For the action thriller, director Siddharth Anand wanted his leading man to look tough and almost invincible. “We wanted to capture the essence of his character, which is inherently cool, through [his outfits] and hairstyle. We wanted to make Shah Rukh Khan the symbol of alpha and machismo,” says Anand, who has collaborated with the actor for the first time.

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