Actor Aamir Khan who unveiled the trailer of his film Secret Superstar along with his wife Kiran Rao, revealed that his wife is a wonderful actress and wants her to take it up seriously. “I have been requesting Kiran to act for the longest time because she is a fantastic actor. When we were working on Dhobi Ghat, she used to read out Yasmin (Kriti Malhotra’s role) so well. I was tired of telling her that she should take up this role. She is too adamant,” he explained, adding, “After a lot prodding, she sung a song for Paani Foundation — she is also a good singer.”
However, Kiran has no aspiration to be an actor. She said, “During my college days, I used to enjoy acting. But when I direct a film, the satisfaction is entirely different. I have no real intentions to act. I do have an interest in theatre though. So when I get retired, I would like to take up something in that space.”
Going by the current box office records, Aamir seems to be the most bankable Khan. The actor, however, maintains that he likes to stay out of the numbers game. He says, “Creative work is unpredictable. We all try our best — sometimes we succeed and sometimes we don’t. I don’t think one or two films will affect anyone’s stardom. Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan are huge stars. I am a fan of their work. I don’t compare my work to theirs — each one is unique.”
Secret Superstar is the story of a small-town girl played by Zaira Wasim who wants to be a world-famous singer and how Aamir mentors her. The actor reveals the initially he was skeptical to play this part. He says, “I loved the script but I couldn’t imagine myself in that character. We decided to do a screen test and while doing it, I was enjoying it. It was a challenge to play a character, which is so different from me.”
Adding to this, Kiran said, “I advised him against this role since it’s the kind of character you don’t want to sit in a room with. I told him, ‘You did Dangal where you played a father. This role is peculiar.’ But when we saw the screen test we were convinced that he can pull off this character.” At the event, Aamir also paid tribute to the late Bollywood photographer Raju Upadhyay.
