Bollywood star Aamir Khan, who is currently taking a break from acting in films, recently opened up about when he shot his first movie as a school student with director Basu Bhattacharya's son Aditya Bhattacharya, and how veteran actor Shabana Azmi reacted to the feature. Aamir said that the said film was a silent, 40-minute movie called Paranoia, and that it was a bit of a 'high-funda' film which had some of the most renowned actors working on it. "I had a classmate Aditya Bhattacharya, director Basu Bhattacharya's son. We were in class together and he was also not really into academics. We were friends, and he said to me after the board exams, 'I want to make a short film. My dad has got a camera, I am gonna get stock free from Manmohan Shetty and we'll make a film.' It was an esoteric kind of film, there were no dialogues, it was a silent film called Paranoia. But it was quite a well-mounted film, so Victor Banerjee played my father, Neena Gupta was playing my girlfriend. Ashok Mehta, the very famous DOP, shot the film. So Aditya had a lot of connections. We ended up making a 40-minute silent film. There were no dialogues, background score. I also hid it from my parents that I was doing this project. That experience gave me a lot of joy and made me realise that this is where I belong," the actor told Humans of Bombay. Then Aamir proceeded to explain how Shabana Azmi saw the movie and how her reaction to it instilled a lot of joy in him, "Aditya Bhattacharya's mom was a close friend of Shabana Azmi. When the film got over, she said, 'To be honest, I couldn't understand anything. But who is that boy, he is really good.' So I kind of sunk lower in my chair, and she asked, 'Where is he?' I stood up, she asked, 'What's your name?' I said Aamir. She said 'You're Taahir Hussain's son?' I said, yeah. She said 'I am doing a film with your father. I must tell him that you're a very good actor.' I said you can't because he doesn't know I have done this film, and he is a very short-tempered person. He will kill me.' But she said you should be acting, you're really good, and that made me feel so nice because she herself is such a wonderful actor. I am a big fan of Shabana ji." When eventually Aamir's parents got to know of his desire to be in showbiz, they advised him against it. "They didn't want me to join film industry. They said it is a very harsh profession, we don't want you there. So I said I don't think I have a choice (but to do movies) because I really love it," Aamir finished with a smile. Aamir Khan, who is presently on a sabbatical, will be seen in a cameo in Kajol's upcoming Salaam Venky.
