‘He will kill me’: Aamir Khan was scared of his ‘strict’ father who forbade him from joining films, recalls getting banned from tennis because he failed

Aamir explained by giving an example from his life and shared that during his teen years, he was extremely good at tennis but his father banned him from playing at a moment’s notice. “I was very good at tennis. At one point, I was number one in Maharashtra sub-juniors and I would play at least 5-6 hours in a day,” he recalled. Aamir said that during one of his exams, he failed a couple of subjects by a few marks and in that moment, his father decided that he would no longer be playing tennis, and Aamir had to give it up. “He got angry and he banned me from playing tennis. I was at my peak then but my tennis was banned. I could never play tennis after that,” he said.

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Aamir shared that he then worked in a short film and somehow, Shabana Azmi happened to watch that film. She appreciated his work and when she learnt that Aamir was Tahir’s son, she instantly said that she will share her thought with Tahir as well. But, this made Aamir nervous. “I told her that if you tell him, I will not be alive to be an actor so please don’t tell him,” he said.

A few years later, Aamir made his film debut in his uncle Nasir Hussain’s production Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, which was directed by his cousin Mansoor Khan. He has now been in the movies for over 36 years.