He was born on October 18, 1906 and completed his primary and secondary education in Al-Fir schools. At the age of 12, he became a fan of cinema and frequently visited cinema movies back then. The first film he saw on the screen was a silent film by the famous comedian Charlie Chaplin appear on that screen. The film had such an impact on Ahmed Badrkhan that he decided to appear on the screen.
In 1930, he joined the Acting Institute founded by Zaki Talimat. After successfully obtaining a French degree, he joined the American University and participated in the activities of the acting troupe trained by the famous artist Georges Al-Abid. He later founded an acting troupe called Al-Talia and played the lead role in the play Al-Adib, which was staged at the Ramsis Theatre. He later joined the university and continued his studies at the College of Law upon the request of his father. He joined the Paris Institute of Cinema, where he received lectures and lessons, published them in the morning magazine, which later became the editor-in-chief of the cinema section of the same magazine in 1931.
Through his writings, he attracted the attention of Talat Harb and commissioned him to prepare a report for the establishment of a studio. He successfully prepared the report based on the books and articles available on the stage, despite the information he received through a friend named Niazi Mustafa who was studying cinema in Germany. The report was approved by the investor Talat Harb and he began to build the project Ahmad Badrkhan was among those who went to France, where he met the famous artist Najib al-Rihani while shooting Yaqut Effendi in 1934, and later participated as an assistant director in the direction of Amil Ruziyah movie.
While in Paris, he received the story of Widad from the Old Egyptian Studio to write a screenplay for it. In October 1934, he returned to Egypt and worked as a film director at the Egyptian Studio on a salary of 20 Egyptian pounds.
Widad was starring by Umm Kulthum, who was supposed to direct the film. After the completion of some scenes due to a problem with the director of the studio (Ahmad Salim) entrusted the task of directing to the German director (Fried Crumb) and Ahmad Badrkhan resigned from the studio after this behavior.
In 1937, Umm Kulthum chose Ahmad Badr Khan to direct her second film, Nasheed al-Amal, which was produced for the first time by Al-Sharq, this work was done as the return of Ahmad Badr Khan's honor, after which he directed all of Umm Kulthum's films except Salamah. (Dananir P, 1940, Aida 1942, Fatima 1947) were the films that Ahmad Badr Khan directed for Umm Kulthum.
Ahmad Badrkhan was better known among his friends as a director of film songs because as a poet he inject his ideas through songs into his films, some of which he wrote by himself. Ahmad Badr Khan later directed Intisar al-Shabab and success of youth films for Farid al-Atarsh and Asmahan in 1941.
He later directed a number of films for singer Farid al-Atarsh (Honeymoon 1945, I Can't 1946, I Love You 1949, Last Lie 1950, I Want to Marry 1953 with Noor al-Hadi, Love Song with Sabah 1953, Love Covenant 1955, How to Remember You 1956). He has also directed for a number of singers such as Najat al-Saghira, Mohammed Fuzi, Mohammed al-Kahlawi and Abdul Aziz Mahmoud.
In 1944, he founded a film production company with Abdul Halim Nasser, Amina Razq and Helmi Rafla called the Artists Union Company. He made a number of films such as A Kiss in Lebanon (1945), Cairo-Baghdad (1966), Night Prison, Equality of the Sky in the same year, and Syed Darwish (1967) and his last film Nadi.
Ahmad Badrkhan was one of the people who called for the establishment of the Institute of Cinema. When he was in Hamidi, he held several administrative positions in the Ministry of Culture. He occupied the position of Director of Cinema Affairs in 1959 and took over the management of several international festivals and worked there until his death on 27-08-1969, later his son Ali Badr Khan followed his suit.[1]