Rizwan Khan (Tanay Chheda) is a Muslim child who lived with his brother Zakir (Jimmy Sheirgill) and his mother (Zarina Wahab) in a middle-class family in the Borivali section of Mumbai. Rizwan has autism, but he has certain gifts, particularly a special ability to repair things. His difference leads to special tutoring from a reclusive scholar and extra attention from his mother, all which leads to a heightened level of jealousy from his brother, who eventually leaves his family for a life in the United States.

Despite this initial resentment, as an adult Zakir requests Rizwan (Shah Rukh Khan) to come and live with him in San Francisco after the death of their mother. It is at this time that Zakir's wife, Haseena diagnoses Rizwan as having Asperger's syndrome. Rizwan begins to work as a product seller in Zakir's company and in the process he meets a Hindu woman, Mandira (Kajol) and her young son, Sameer, from a previous marriage. Despite Zakir's hostility to the match, they marry and settle down in the town of Banville, where both Mandira and Sameer take Rizwan's last name as their own. They also live next door to the Garrick family, consisting of Mark, who is a reporter, his wife Sarah and son Reese.

The couples perfect existence is disrupted after the September 11 attacks on the twin towers in New York City. Mark goes to cover the war in Afghanistan and dies there. At the same time, the Khan family begins to experience post 9-11 prejudice in their community and Reese begins to turn against Sameer as well. One afternoon, an argument between them turns into a racially motivated schoolyard fight between Sameer and a number of older students. Reese tries to stop the fight but is held back and Sameer dies from his injuries. A shattered Mandira blames Rizwan for his death stating that Sameer "died only because his name was Khan." She then tells Rizwan that she no longer wants to be with him. When he asks her what he has to do in order for them to be together, she tells him sarcastically that he has to tell the people of the United States and the President that "my name is Khan and that he is not a terrorist".

Rizwan, being naive, thus sets out on a journey that takes him from one US state to another, in order to meet the president and get his wife's love back. During this quest, he travels to a small town in Georgia and befriends Mama Jenny and her son Joel. Later, in Los Angeles, he prays in a Mosque and overhears violent rhetoric from a Muslim docter Faisal Rahman. He reports this to the FBI but there is no response at that moment. Later, while waiting in a crowd to meet President George W. Bush and repeating again and again, "My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist," Rizwan is arrested and placed in a prison by police who misinterpret his statement.

While in the prison he is brutally interrogated as a terrorist suspect and meets the psychiatrist Radha who believes he is innocent. He is later released after a media campaign by some Indian student reporters, who prove his innocence by unearthing his attempts to inform the FBI about Faisal Rahman. After his release, he returns to hurricane-hit Wilhemina to help Mama Jenny and her son. His efforts attract media attention and numerous Muslims come to help as well. At the same time, Reese confesses to Mandira and reveals the identity of the boys who beat up Sam. She informs Detective Garcia who has been assisting her on the case, and the boys are arrested.

After the killers are brought to justice, she joins Rizwan in Georgia. At the moment she arrives to meet him, Rizwan is stabbed by one of Faisal Rahman's followers, who accuses him of being a traitor to Islam. He is then rushed to the hospital. With Mandira's help, Rizwan survives and meets President-elect Barack Obama, who tells him: "Your name is Khan and you are not a terrorist."

• Shahrukh Khan as Rizwan Khan
• Kajol as Mandira Khan, Rizwan's wife
• Sonya Jehan as Haseena Khan, Zakir's wife
• Jimmy Sheirgill as Zakir Khan, Rizwan's brother
• Zarina Wahab as Razia Khan, Rizwan's mother
• Vinay Pathak as Jitesh
• Parvin Dabas as Bobby Ahuja, a news channel reporter
• Arjun Mathur as Raj Burman
• Sugandha Garg as Komal
• Sumeet Raghavan as Attacker
• Arif Zakaria as Faisal Rahman
• Sheetal Menon as Radha
• Pallavi Sharda as Sajida Khan
• Tanay Chheda as young Rizwan Khan
• Arjan Aujla as Sameer (Sam), Mandira's son
• Yuvaan Makaar as Young Sameer (Young Sam)
• Kenton Duty as Reese Garrick, Sameer's friend
• Katie A. Keane as Sarah Garrick, Reese's mother
• Dominic Renda as Mark Garrick, Reese's father
• Syed Tausif Kamran as BBC Reporter.
• Christopher B. Duncan as President-elect Barack Obama
• Brent Mendenhall as President George W. Bush
• Michael Arnold as Reese Garrick (as a child)
• Harmony Blossom as Karma Girl
• Jennifer Echols as Mama Jenny
• Adrian Kali Turner as Funny Hair Joel
• Benny Nieves as Detective Garcia
• Kyle Hamon as Jim, main bully of Sameer
• Shane Harper as Tim Tompson, another bully of Sameer
• Marquis Scott as Tyler, another bully of Sameer
• Jeremy Kilpatrick as Jimmy, another bully of Sameer
• Kavin Dave as Computer Hacker

Themes

According to Karan Johar, writer, co-producer and director of My Name Is Khan, the film is about a multitude of perspectives of the various opinions, facts, and propaganda that comes with the global issue of discrimination and intolerance towards a race of people completely unassociated with the evils of terrorism. In an August 2009 interview, Shah Rukh Khan stated that My Name Is Khan is "not about terrorism, or 9/11. It's about a relationship between two people, between an individual and the State, and between an individual and the country. In short, there are the three important components: a love story, Islam, and a mild form of autism."

In an earlier July 2009 interview, Khan also noted that the film focuses on themes concerning "the relationship between the Western world and Islam and how that has changed over the past few years." He describes the film as about "the journey of one family and how it changes because of 9/11" and suggests "we touch upon that in a very unbiased and educated way." In another early interview, he also stated that, "it's not about a disabled man's fight against disability. It's a disabled man's fight against the disability that exists in the world—terrorism, hatred, fighting ... My Name Is Khan is also about Islam and the way the world looks at Islam but we are not taking any sides. We are only trying to say that there are only good people and bad people. There are no good Hindus, bad Hindus, good Christians, bad Christians. Either you are a good person or a bad person. Religion is not the criterion, humanity is."

Karan Johar said in an interview with Bollywood Hungama: "MNIK is an unusual Bollywood film, if at all, and doesn't have those quintessential pre-requisite elements that any Bollywood film has. It's telling a story with a strong message, professing humanity and goodness and putting it out on a big cinematic scale. So all put together it is definitely a different experience for mainstream India (...) All I can say is that MNIK is going to open windows and doors to many people who have stories to tell and are shy to put their story on the celluloid" When asked about comparisons between the film and the 2009 release Kurbaan, noting that both have dealt with similar topics, he added: "I'd say that Kurbaan didn't have 'hope', whereas MNIK had 'hope'. Kurbaan was more darker, grittier and a grey look at a situation, whereas MNIK is a hopeful, far more positive and a lot more positivity in its finishing reels with a triumph to the human spirit. Kurbaan was very cinematic and interesting in its approach but it didn't offer a solution. Rather it just tells the problem. MNIK offers you that solution."

Casting and filming

Production of the film took place in India and the United States. Filming began in Los Angeles during December 2008 and one of the locations used was UCLA. Johar next continued production in Mumbai during April 2009. During June 2009, production moved to San Francisco and the Bay Area, where they filmed a key scene at the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose.

Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol were cast in the lead roles, reuniting them after many years. The film faced a temporary setback in late December when actor