The line comes from the 2010 Bollywood film My Name Is Khan, directed by Karan Johar and starring Shah Rukh Khan as Rizwan Khan. In the film, Rizwan, a Muslim man with Asperger's syndrome living in America after the September 11 attacks, repeats the phrase to challenge prejudice and assert his identity. The full line, My name is Khan, and I am not a terrorist, became the film's defining quote and spread through trailers, fan edits and social media clips. It is still used today because its calm defiance works as shorthand for pride, belonging and resistance to stereotyping.