'Always there for his kids': Inside Shah Rukh Khan’s life as a father from former security chief

Dubai: Shah Rukh Khan has built a reputation as one of Bollywood's greatest stars. But according to the man who spent a decade keeping him safe, the role he takes most seriously happens off camera.

Yaseen Khan served as Shah Rukh's personal security head from 2001 to 2011, travelling the world alongside the actor and his family before going on to run his own high-profile security agency. In a recent conversation, he opened up about what those ten years taught him about the man behind the superstar, and the picture he paints is of someone who never let fame get in the way of fatherhood.

Yaseen recalls Shah Rukh attending school sports days, doing the school run whenever he was in town, and taking a two-month break every single year to be with his family in London, where he, Aryan and a group of friends including Arbaaz Khan, Sohail Khan and Sanjay Kapoor would play football with their kids in Hyde Park.

What stands out most, though, is a detail that feels almost too wholesome to believe. When Shah Rukh was shooting abroad, he would study the school syllabus on his own just so he could tutor Aryan and Suhana online ahead of their exams.

"In my 10 years, I'd never seen him tell Gauri bhabhi, 'I'm tired, I won't come,'" Yaseen said to Screen. "He's always ready for family."

Yaseen also had a front-row seat to Aryan Khan's childhood, even training him in karate during those years. He describes Aryan as respectful, grounded and very much his father's son, with the same love of sports and the same values. A recent run-in with Aryan, now grown, left him smiling.

"He told me, 'You used to say I can't do this somersault, right?' He showed me that somersault right then," Yaseen recalled.

For Yaseen himself, the decade with Shah Rukh was transformative in ways he never anticipated growing up in a small town. Private jets, five-star hotels and eight fully stamped passports later, he says the experience shaped everything that came after. When he left in 2011, Shah Rukh sent him off warmly and told him the door would always be open.

Yaseen has since gone on to head security operations at some of India's biggest celebrity weddings, including those of Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma, Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas, and Akash and Shloka Ambani. But it is clear that one job left a lasting impression.