Back in the day, everyone from Dev Anand to Dilip Kumar, Ashok Kumar to Guru Dutt, all the way back to Prithviraj Kapoor, had a story.

Today's filmstars just have parents. Producer parents, actor parents, financier parents.

Yet there are always exceptions. Here's a look at some great ones:

Shah Rukh Khan

The quintessential struggler story, Shah Rukh's is the one that gives credence to the millions of starry-eyed dreamers who come to Mumbai in search of finding everything. Khan once legendarily looked out at Mumbai's sea-facing Bandstand area and announced that he would rule the city.

This was even before he camped in the houses of directors Aziz Mirza and Viveck Vaswani, as the television actor from Fauji and Circus slogged to get a foot into a cruel, insider-only industry.

Yet Khan wasn't ready to accept bit roles, and refused to play Anil Kapoor's driver in 1942: A Love Story, even though he and wife Gauri were barely able to scrape together rent.

Khan stuck to his guns. Today, his Bandstand bungalow is a tourist shrine and he's a far way from staying at friends' houses to put himself through.

Listen to: Dard-E-Disco
Also See: Shah Rukh Khan, 40

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