Aamir Khan's first film was a silent movie shot behind his parents' backs
At sixteen, Aamir Khan starred in a 40-minute silent film called Paranoia, filmed in secret because his parents wanted him to become an engineer or doctor. Decades later, five of his films, from Ghajini to Dangal, each held the title of India's highest-grossing movie, and Newsweek called him the most bankable star anywhere.
Born in Bombay on 14 March 1965 to film producer Tahir Hussain and Zeenat Hussain, Khan grew up inside the Hindi film world, yet his childhood was far from glamorous. His father's productions mostly flopped, creditors phoned the house constantly, and unpaid fees left him at risk of expulsion from school. He became a state-level tennis champion and admitted he cared more about sport than study. His uncle, producer-director Nasir Hussain, gave him a first screen moment at age eight in Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973).
Paranoia, directed by school friend Aditya Bhattacharya and bankrolled with a few thousand rupees from Shriram Lagoo, persuaded him that cinema was his path. He then spent more than a year backstage with the theatre group Avantar and worked as an assistant director for his uncle. His adult debut came in Ketan Mehta's low-budget Holi (1984), but the real breakthrough was Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), directed by his cousin Mansoor Khan, which collected seven Filmfare Awards, among them Best Male Debut for him.
In 1999 he launched Aamir Khan Productions. Its first release, Lagaan (2001), earned an Oscar nomination in the foreign-language category. He moved behind the camera with Taare Zameen Par (2007), which won him Filmfare's Best Director and Best Film prizes. His biggest box-office run stretched from 2008 to 2016, and Dangal, the final hit of that streak, also delivered his third Filmfare trophy for Best Actor.
The press nicknamed him Mr. Perfectionist. His honours include nine Filmfare Awards, four National Film Awards, the Padma Shri in 2003, the Padma Bhushan in 2010 and an honorary title from the Chinese government in 2017, a sign of his large following in China. He also created and hosted the talk show Satyamev Jayate, and his social-reform work put him on the Time 100 list in 2013.
Source: Aamir Khan
