In-house competition

Khan's critics decry the apparent commercialization of his art. But to his legions of fans, especially among India's youth, he is an inspiration - a self-made star, who started out as an outsider in Bollywood, coming from a lower middle-class family and having lost both his parents early.

He began his career on television and became a household name in India by the late 1980s. Since the early '90s, he has played a range of roles in movies.

Still, he is less well-known in China as compared to the other Indian superstar Aamir Khan, whose film Dangal topped the Chinese box office in 2017, in a first for Indian cinema. Years prior, Shah Rukh Khan's film Chak De! India had touched on similar themes: sports, gender equality.

"If Shah Rukh Khan wants to become more popular in China, he should pick some of his new films that are suitable for the Chinese audience, along with good marketing in the next few years," said Tan Zheng, chief executive editor of the Chinese film magazine Dianying Yishu.

Many Chinese moviegoers have taken to Indian films, in part owing to the lack of diversity in domestic cinema, especially on socially-relevant topics.

From that perspective, Aamir Khan has an early-starter advantage.

"It will be difficult for Shah Rukh Khan to replicate Aamir Khan's success in China," Chinese film industry analyst Jiang Yong said.

But going by the failure of Aamir Khan's latest film Thugs of Hindostan in China, there might not be a magic formula for this market.