Aamir Khan born Mohammed Aamir Hussain Khan 14 March 1965
is an Indian film actor, director, screenwriter, producer and television
presenter. Through his successful career in Hindi films, Khan has established
himself as one of the most popular and influential actors of Indian cinema. He
is the recipient of numerous awards and nominations, including four National
Film Awards and seven Filmfare Awards, and was honoured by the Government of
India with the Padma Shri in 2003 and the Padma Bhushan in 2010.
Khan first appeared on screen as a child actor in his
uncle Nasir Hussain's film Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973). His first feature film
role came with the experimental film Holi (1984), and he began a full-time
career in film with a leading role in the highly successful tragic romance
Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988). His performance in the film and in the thriller
Raakh (1989) earned him a Special Jury Award at the National Film Award
ceremony. He established himself as a leading actor of Hindi cinema in the
1990s by appearing in several commercially successful films, including the
romantic drama Dil (1990), the romance Raja Hindustani (1996), for which he won
his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor, and the drama Sarfarosh (1999). He was
also noted for playing against type in the critically acclaimed Canadian-Indian
film Earth (1998).
In 2001, Khan started a production company, whose first
release, Lagaan, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language
Film and earned him a National Film Award for Best Popular Film and two more
Filmfare Awards. After a four-year absence from the screen, Khan continued to portray
leading roles, most notably in the 2006 box-office hits Fanaa and Rang De
Basanti. The following year, he made his directorial debut with Taare Zameen
Par, a major success that garnered him the Filmfare Awards for Best Film and
Best Director. Khan's greatest commercial successes came with the thriller
Ghajini (2008), the dramedy 3 Idiots (2009), and the adventure film Dhoom 3,
all of which held records for being the highest grossing Bollywood film of
all-time.
In addition to acting, Khan is a humanitarian and has
participated in and spoken out for various social causes, some of which have
sparked political controversy. He has created, and featured as the host of the
television talk show Satyamev Jayate through which he highlights sensitive
social issues prevailing in India. Khan was married to his first wife, Reena
Dutta, for fifteen years following which he married the film director Kiran
Rao. He has three children—two with Dutta, and one with Rao through a
surrogate.Khan was born on 14 March 1965 in Mumbai to Tahir Hussain, a film
producer, and Zeenat Hussain. Several of his relatives were members of the
Hindi film industry, including his late paternal uncle, the producer-director
Nasir Hussain. His great-grand uncle was the Indian freedom fighter and philosopher
Abul Kalam Azad. Khan is the eldest of four siblings; he has a brother, the
actor Faisal Khan, and two sisters, Farhat and Nikhat Khan. His nephew, Imran
Khan, is a contemporary Hindi film actor.
As a child, Khan appeared on screen in two cameos. His
first appearance was at the age of eight in a highly popular song in the Nasir
Hussain-directed musical film Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973). The following year, he
portrayed the younger version of Mahendra Sandhu's character in his father's
production Madhosh (1974). Khan attended J.B. Petit School for his pre-primary
education, later switching to St. Anne's High School, Bandra till the eight
grade, and completed his ninth and tenth grade at the Bombay Scottish School,
Mahim. He played tennis in state level championships, saying that he was
"much more into sports than studies". He completed his twelfth grade
from Mumbai's Narsee Monjee College. Khan described his childhood as
"tough" due to the financial problems faced by his father whose film
productions failed to earn profits. He said that "there would be at least
30 calls a day from creditors calling for their money" and he was always
at a risk of being expelled from school for non-payment of fees.
At the age of sixteen, Khan was involved in the
experimental process of making a 40-minute silent film entitled Paranoia that
was directed by his school friend Aditya Bhattacharya. The film was funded by
the filmmaker Shriram Lagoo, an acquaintance of Bhattacharya, who provided them
with a few thousand rupees. Khan's parents opposed to his joining films due to
their own experience, wishing that he would instead pursue a "steady"
career of an engineer or doctor, and thus the shooting schedule of Paranoia was
a clandestine one. In the film, he played the lead role alongside actors Neena
Gupta and Victor Banerjee, while simultaneously assisting Bhattacharya. He said
that the experience of working on it encouraged him to pursue a full-time
career in film.
Khan subsequently joined a theatre group called Avantar,
where he worked backstage for a year and a half, following which he made his
stage debut with a small role in their Gujarati play, Kesar Bina, at Prithvi
Theatre. He then acted in two Hindi plays and an English play named Clearing
House. After completing his high-school education Khan decided to discontinue
studying, despite the objection of his parents, choosing instead to work as an
assistant director to Nasir Hussain on two Hindi films—Manzil Manzil (1984) and
Zabardast (1985).In addition to assisting Hussain, Khan acted in documentaries
directed by the students of FTII, Pune. He was noticed for his work in these
documentaries by director Ketan Mehta, who offered him his first feature film
role in the low-budget experimental film Holi (1984). Featuring an ensemble
cast of newcomers, Holi was based on a play by Mahesh Elkunchwar, and dealt
with the practice of ragging in India. Khan portrayed the role of a rowdy
college student, an "insignificant" role, that was described by
CNN-IBN as "lack in finesse". The New York Times published that the
film was "melodramatic" but was "very decently and exuberantly
performed by the nonprofessional actors".
Holi failed to garner a broad audience, but Nasir Hussain
and his son Mansoor noticed Khan's performance in it and signed him on for
Mansoor's directorial debut Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) alongside Juhi
Chawla. The film was a tale of unrequited love and parental opposition based on
the Shakespearean tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, with Khan portraying the leading
role of Raj, a "clean-cut whole-some boy-next-door". Qayamat Se
Qayamat Tak proved to be a major commercial success, catapulting both Khan and
Chawla to stardom. It was awarded seven Filmfare Awards including a Best Male
Debut trophy for Khan. The film has since attained cult status, with the
entertainment portal Bollywood Hungama crediting it as a "path-breaking
and trend setting film" for Indian cinema.
The year 1989 saw the release of Raakh, a crime thriller
from Aditya Bhattacharya that was filmed before the production of Qayamat Se
Qayamat Tak. The film tells the story of a young man avenging the rape of his
ex-girlfriend. Despite a poor reception at the box-office, the film was
critically acclaimed. Khan was awarded a National Film Award – Special Jury
Award / Special Mention for his "imaginative, innovative and
promising" performances in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak and Raakh. Later that
year he reunited with Chawla for the romantic comedy Love Love Love, a commercial
failure.
Khan had five film releases in 1990. He found no success
with the sport film Awwal Number, the mythological thriller Tum Mere Ho, the
romance Deewana Mujh Sa Nahin and the social drama Jawani Zindabad. However,
the Indra Kumar-directed romantic drama Dil was a success and established him
as a leading actor of Hindi cinema. A tale of parental opposition to teenage
love, Dil was highly popular among the youth, and emerged as the
highest-grossing Hindi film of the year. He followed this success with a
leading role alongside Pooja Bhatt in the romantic comedy Dil Hai Ke Manta
Nahin (1991), a "frame-by-frame copy" of the Hollywood film It
Happened One Night (1934), which proved to be a box office hit.
After that, he went on to appear in several other films
in the late '80s and early '90s: Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992), Hum Hain Rahi
Pyar Ke (1993), and Rangeela (1995). Most of these films were successful
critically and commercially. Other successes include Andaz Apna Apna,
co-starring Salman Khan. At the time of its release the movie was reviewed
unfavorably by critics, but over the years has gained cult status.
Khan continued to act in just one or two films a year,
then an unusual trait for a mainstream Hindi cinema actor. His only release in
1996 was the Dharmesh Darshan directed commercial blockbuster Raja Hindustani
in which he was paired opposite Karisma Kapoor. The film earned him his first
Filmfare Best Actor Award, after seven previous nominations, and went on to
become the biggest hit of the year, as well as the third-highest grossing
Indian film of the 1990s. Khan's career had seemed to hit a plateau at this
point of time, and most of the films to follow for the next few years were only
partially successful. In 1997, he co-starred alongside Ajay Devgn, Kajol and
Juhi Chawla in Ishq, which performed well at the box office. The following
year, Khan appeared in the moderately successful Ghulam, for which he also did
playback singing. John Mathew Matthan's Sarfarosh (1999), Khan's first release
in 1999, was also moderately successful, gaining an above average box office
verdict. The film and Khan's role in it were highly appreciated by movie
critics, as was his role in Deepa Mehta's art house film Earth. His first
release for the new millennium, Mela, in which he acted alongside his real-life
brother Faisal Khan, was both a box-office and critical bomb.
In 2001 he appeared in Lagaan. The film was a major
critical and commercial success, and received a nomination for Best Foreign
Language Film at the 74th Academy Awards. Additionally, the film gathered
critical acclaim at several international film festivals, in addition to
winning numerous Indian awards, including the National Film Awards. Khan
himself won his second Filmfare Best Actor Award.
The success of Lagaan was followed by Dil Chahta Hai
later that year, in which Khan co-starred with Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye
Khanna, with Preity Zinta playing his love interest. The film was written and
directed by the then newcomer Farhan Akhtar. According to critics, the film
broke new grounds by showing Indian urban youth as they really are today. The
characters depicted were modern, suave and cosmopolitan. The film did
moderately well and was a success mostly in urban cities.
Khan then took a four-year break citing personal
problems, and returned in 2005 with Ketan Mehta's Mangal Pandey: The Rising
playing the title role of the real-life sepoy and a martyr who helped spark the
Indian Rebellion of 1857.
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's award-winning Rang De Basanti
was Khan's first release in 2006. His role was critically acclaimed, earning
him a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor and various nominations for Best
Actor. The film went on to become one of the highest grossing films of the
year, and was selected as India's official entry to the Oscars. Although the
film was not shortlisted as a nominee for the Oscar, it received a nomination
for Best Foreign Film at the BAFTA Awards in England. Khan's work in his next
movie, Fanaa (2006) co-starred with Kajol was also appreciated, and the film
went on to become one of the highest grossing Indian films of 2006.
His 2007 film, Taare Zameen Par was also produced by him
and marked his directorial debut. The film, which was the second offering from
Aamir Khan Productions, starred Khan in a supporting role as a teacher who
befriends and helps a dyslexic child. It opened to excellent responses from
critics and audiences alike. Khan's performance was well-received, although he
was particularly applauded for his directing.
In 2008, Khan appeared in the movie Ghajini. The film was
a major commercial success and became the highest grossing Bollywood movie of
that year. For his performance in the film, Khan received several Best Actor
nominations at various award ceremonies as well as his fifteenth Filmfare Best
Actor nomination.
In 2009, Khan appeared in the commercially and critically
acclaimed film 3 Idiots as Ranchodas Chanchad. 3 Idiots has become the
highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time in India, breaking the previous
record set by Ghajini which also starred Aamir Khan.3 Idiots also became one of
the few Indian films to become a major success in East Asian markets such as
China, eventually bringing its overseas total to US$25 million—the
highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time in overseas markets. It was
expected to be the first Indian film to be officially released on YouTube,
within 12 weeks of releasing in theatres on 25 March 2010, but finally got
officially released on YouTube in May 2012. The film also went on to win many
awards, winning six Filmfare Awards including best film and best director, ten
Star Screen Awards and sixteen IIFA Awards Around August 2011, Khan started
talks with Siddhartha Basu's BIG Synergy, to host a talk show, similar to The
Oprah Winfrey Show.
On 6 May 2012, the highly anticipated show Satyamev
Jayate debuted in English and all major Indian languages and received both
popular and critical praise for its discussions on various social issues like
female foeticide, child sexual abuse and dowry plaguing Indian society.
There was speculation that Khan had disagreements with
Reema Kagti over the tone of the film, Talaash, which delayed its release date
significantly. However Khan said that the claims were baseless. The film was
released and was a hit.
Khan next venture was Dhoom 3 with Yash Raj Films. He has
considered this to be his most difficult role in his career to date. The film
was released worldwide on 20 December 2013. Upon the release the film was
hugely appreciated by the critics and public and the film went on smashing all
box office records. Box Office India declared Dhoom 3 "the biggest hit of
2013" after two days of release, with the film grossing INR2 billion
(US$33 million) worldwide in three days. with the film grossing INR4 billion
(US$66 million) worldwide in ten days, making it the highest-grossing Bollywood
film of all time.
This was the third time that Khan topped the list of
highest-grossing Bollywood films, having previously done so with Ghajini, in
2008, and with 3 Idiots a year later.
PK is Khan's upcoming Hindi comedy-drama film directed by
Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Siddharth Roy
Kapur which is scheduled to release on 19 December 2014. It also stars Anushka
Sharma, Sushant Singh Rajput, Boman Irani and Sanjay Dutt in supporting
roles.In 2001 Khan set up a production company known as Aamir Khan Productions.
Its first film was Lagaan. The movie was released in 2001, starring Khan as the
lead actor. The film was selected as India's official entry to the 74th Academy
Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category. It was eventually chosen and
nominated in that category but lost to No Man's Land. The film won numerous
awards at several Indian award functions such as Filmfare and IIFA, and won the
National Film Award for Most Popular Film, an award shared between Khan and the
film's director, Ashutosh Gowariker. Khan later commented on the loss of Lagaan
at the Oscars: "Certainly we were disappointed. But the thing that really
kept us in our spirits was that the entire country was behind us".
For producing the documentary, Madness in the Desert, on
the making of Lagaan, Khan and director Satyajit Bhatkal were awarded the
National Film Award for Best Exploration/Adventure Film at the 51st National
Film Awards ceremony.
In 2007 he produced the drama Taare Zameen Par which
marked his directorial debut. Khan also played a supporting role in the film,
sharing the screen with the debut of child actor Darsheel Safary. The film was
initially conceived of and developed by the husband and wife team, Amole Gupte
and Deepa Bhatia. It is the story of a young child who suffers in school until
a teacher identifies him as dyslexic. The movie was critically acclaimed, as
well as a box office success. Taare Zameen Par won the 2008 Filmfare Best Movie
Award as well as a number of other Filmfare and Star Screen Awards. Khan's work
also won him the Best Director. In 2008, Khan launched his nephew Imran Khan's
debut in the film Jaane Tu. Ya Jaane Na under his production house. The film
was a big hit in India, and eventually earned Khan another nomination for Best
Movie at the Filmfare.
In 2011, Khan released his home production Dhobi
Ghat.[84] which was directed by his wife, Kiran Rao. In 2012, Khan starred in
Reema Kagti's neo-noir mystery film, Talaash which was joint production by
Excel Entertainment and Aamir Khan Productions. The film was eventually
declared a semi-hit in India and accumulated a worldwide gross of INR1.74
billion (US$29 million).