Aamir Khan - One guy who has matured from a Star to Actor. He isnt bugged down by the insecurity these other guys seem to have(who keep signing movies without much thought about the kind of film they are making in the hope that at least 1 of them will click and they will be able to sign more films). He has started being choosy quite a few years back and the results are there for everyone to see. One might ask what logic is there in doing movies like Mela, Aantank Hi Aantak...but otherwise generally his choice has matched at least my taste and I hope many other cine-lovers taste.
In all those ads devoid creativity, his coke ads were the only ones which were creative. Lets start from the top.
1) Dil Chahta Hai - Who was the best out of the three - Aamir, Saif, Akshay..i dont care. All three lived their character, and everybody(at least 99% of people I know) loved it.
2) 1947-Earth - Three phases of that character - The playful phase where he keeps teasing the girl he loves. The middle phase where he is confused and afraid about his actions, his thoughts during the riots and hopes for the support of the girl he loves to maintain his sanity and the last phase(have to see it to feel it). No other actor could have seamlessly covered the whole 3 phases.
3) Rangeela - This is where he teamed up with a equally brillant director Ram Gopal Varma and gave one of his best performances. I still could not figure out why Shahrukh got a Filmfare award that year.
4) Lagaan - Well do I need to add anything here.
5) Raakh - I am not sure but I think this is his next film after QSQT..and what a performance...i havent been able to see this movie again afterwards(i saw it once when it was released) but certain shots still linger in my mind after I dont know how many years. It was that compelling. I dont hear much about it but it is one movie I would like to see now(I dont know where to get the vcd/dvd for that).
One strong contender to this list is Sarfarosh - but I dont know which one to exclude to accomodate it.