Journalism of Courage
One of the most established Khans in the film industry, Aamir Khan is greatly acknowledged for his brilliant body of work. The actor, who is known to be extremely particular when it comes to his films, nicknamed Mr. Perfectionist turns 51 today. Seen in hit movies like PK, Lagaan, Dil Chahta Hai, Rang De Basanti and many more to his credit, he is gearing up for his next Dangal. The actor had been spending the last few days shooting for his film in Haryana and Punjab. Here's a look through his life, work and all that he has accomplished till date.
Aamir Khan is currently busy gearing up for his upcoming film, ‘Dangal’, a biopic based on the life of wrestler Mahavir Phogat and his daughters – Geeta, Babita and Sangita. Aamir is all beefy, to look the part and now currently weighs 90 kilos. Besides putting on 22 kilos, Aamir Khan has turned vegan and also learning Haryanvi for the film.
Last year, Aamir Khan teamed up with Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra for his last release, ‘PK’, where he played the role of an alien. Questioning religious dogmas and superstitions, the film faced a lot of controversy. But, much prior to its release, being the marketing genius that he is, Aamir Khan along with the ‘PK’ team managed to create a great hype about the film through various strategies, including the release of a poster featuring Aamir Khan wearing nothing but a radio transistor. ‘PK’ emerged as the highest grossing Indian film of all time.
Coming back to his personal life, Aamir Khan was born to Tahir Hussain, a film producer, and Zeenat Hussain. Many of his relatives were from the film industry including Aamir's late paternal uncle, the producer-director Nasir Hussain. His great-grand uncle was freedom fighter and philosopher Abul Kalam Azad. Out of his three siblings, his brother Faisal is an actor and nephew Imran Khan is also part of the industry.
Aamir Khan attended J.B. Petit School for his pre-primary education, later switching to St. Anne's High School, till the eight grade, and completed his ninth and tenth grade at Bombay Scottish School. He later completed his 12 grade from Narsee Monjee College.
On the personal front, Aamir Khan married first wife Reena Dutta on April 18, 1986 and they have two children - son Junaid and daughter, Ira. However, the couple separated after 15 years of marriage.
In 2005, Aamir Khan married Kiran Rao, who was an assistant director on the sets of his production venture 'Lagaan'. They have a three-year-old son – Azad Rao Khan, who was born through surrogacy in 2011.
Coming back to his professional life, Aamir Khan made his first onscreen debut as a child 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).
In addition to assisting his uncle, Aamir took up acting in documentaries directed by the students of FTII, Pune. It was here that we was noticed by director Ketan Mehta, who offered him his first feature film role in the low-budget experimental film ‘Holi’ (1984). Though the film didn’t garner much attention, Nasir Hussain and his son Mansoor noticed Aamir Khan's performance in it and signed him on for Mansoor's directorial debut ‘Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak’ (1988) opposite Juhi Chawla. Aamir Khan essayed the role of Raj and the film proved to be a major commercial success, bagging seven Filmfare Awards including a Best Male Debut trophy for Khan.
The following year, Aamir Khan starred in 'Raakh', a crime thriller from Aditya Bhattacharya, where he played a young man avenging the rape of his ex-girlfriend (played by Supriya Pathak). Though the film wasn’t that successful, it was critically acclaimed. Aamir Khan was awarded a National Film Award for his performance. Later that he once again starred with Juhi Chawla.
Year 1990 saw five releases by Aamir Khan – ‘Awwal Number’, ‘Tum Mere Ho’, ‘Deewana Mujh Sa Nahin’, ‘Jawani Zindabad’, ‘Dil’ and ‘Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin’. Out of these, ‘Dil’ was well received especially among the youth and emerged as the highest-grossing Hindi film of the year.
In 1992 Aamir Khan appeared in sports drama film, 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar', which went on to win the Filmfare Award for Best Film that year.
In the 90s' Aamir Khan was seen in several films including ‘Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke’ (1993) and ‘Rangeela’ (1995). Both these films were highly successful along with ‘Andaz Apna Apna’ also starring Salman Khan. In Ram Gopal Varma's 'Rangeela' his role of a tapori was much loved and it was followed by the portrayal of Amar in 'Andaz Apna Apna' which was highly appreciated.
Aamir Khan had only one release in 1996 – ‘Raja Hindustani’ opposite Karisma Kapoor. The film earned him his first Filmfare Best Actor Award and went on to become the biggest hit of the year.
The following year Aamir Khan starred in ‘Ishq’ along with Ajay Devgn, Kajol and Juhi Chawla. The muti-starrer performed well at the Box office.
In 1998, he was then seen in 'Ghulam', for which he also did playback singing. It did very well at the box office and was declared a 'big hit' launching the career of Rani Mukerji. Another much talked about release of 1998 was Deepa Mehta’s ‘Earth’, which was about the period before and after the partition of India in 1947.
His first release of 1999, ‘Sarfarosh’ was also moderately successful, gaining an above average box office verdict. Aamir’s performance of IPS office Ajay Singh Rathore was highly appreciated in the film.
In 2001, Aamir Khan starred in 'Lagaan', which was set in the Victorian period of India's colonial British Raj. The film, which was also produced by Aamir Khan was a major critical and commercial success and received a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the 74th Academy Awards. Aamir Khan won his second Filmfare Best Actor Award for his performance.
Next came 'Dil Chahta Hai', which starred Aamir, Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna with Preity Zinta. Written and directed by Farhan Akhtar, the film introduced a new-age cinema in Bollywood and was a huge success.
Aamir Khan then took a break for four years and made a comeback with ‘Mangal Pandey: The Rising’ in 2005. Though the film opened to good reviews, it didn’t perform too well at the Box Office.
In 2006, Aamir Khan did Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's ‘Rang De Basanti’, which was a massive commercial and critical success. It was selected as India's official entry to the Oscars and received a nomination for Best Foreign Film at the BAFTA Awards. It also earned Aamir Khan a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor and various nominations for Best Actor.
That same year, Aamir Khan worked with Kunal Kohli in ‘Fanaa’. Aamir Khan was paried with the equally talented Kajol and it was the first time that the actor played full fledged negative role. It opened well and went on to become one of the highest grossing films of the year.
The following year Aamir appeared in action psychological thriller ‘Ghajini’, which became the highest grossing Bollywood movie of that year and earned Aamir several Best nominations. Aamir got a perfect eight pack abs for his role of a person suffering from short term memory loss.
In 2009, Aamir Khan starred in Rajkumar Hirani’s ‘3 Idiots’ along with Sharman Joshi and R. Madhavan. It became the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time, winning six Filmfare Awards including best film and best director, 10 Star Screen Awards and 16 IIFA awards. Not only did it do well in India, but was also a huge hit overseas.
Aamir Khan then appeared in Reema Kagti’s ‘Talaash’ along with Kareena Kapoor Khan, Rani Mukerji and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. The film opened to positive reviews and was declared a hit at the Box Office. Post ‘Talaash’.
Aamir was then seen in Yash Raj Films' 'Dhoom 3', where he played the villain. The film, which also starred Katrina Kaif, Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra, was a smashing hit, becoming the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time.
Besides films, Aamir Khan is also a popular face on television now. He made his small screen debut with the social issue based talk show 'Satyamev Jayte' which started airing in May 2012. The show has completed three seasons.
Aamir Khan also makes time for humanitarian and political causes. In 2006, he participated in the demonstrations put up by the Narmada Bachao Andolan committee after the Gujarat government's decision to raise the height of the Narmada dam. He also lent his support to the Janlokpal Bill Movement led by Anna Hazare in 2011.
