Aamir Khan in Secret Superstar. (Image courtesy: YouTube)
New Delhi:
Aamir Khan's wife Kiran Rao said that she did not want the 52-year-old actor to play the role of music producer Shakti Kumar in new film Secret Superstar, the trailer of which has topped YouTube's trending videos list since it released on Wednesday. At the event to launch the film's trailer, Kiran told news agency PTI that she thought the character of Shakti Kumar was creepy and the "kind of a guy you don't want to hang out alone in the room with." If you've heard Aamir's closing dialogue in the trailer you'd agree with Kiran Rao. "I told him please don't do it, you just did Dangal, you were playing a father in it," PTI quoted Kiran as saying. So how was Aamir Khan cast as the 'creepy' music producer and reality show judge (apparently based on America's Got Talent judge Simon Cowell)?
Aamir Khan said: "When I heard the story, I really liked it. When Advait (director Advait Chandan) asked me to do this role, I said I cannot see myself doing it. Even Kiran said the same. I said I'll do a screen test and if I do well, I'll take up the role. While doing it, I realised I was having fun." Kiran Rao added: "When we saw the screen test, all of us laughed so much. We were totally convinced that he can be this strange creepy person. He did it so well that we had to believe. But he wasn't the original fit."
Of his character in Secret Superstar, Aamir Khan told PTI: "It is a very unusual character for me. The character is very different from me. It was a challenge for me to play this character and make people believe that this character is like that."
But Aamir Khan is not the protagonist of Secret Superstar, which he produces with Kiran Rao. Aamir's Dangal co-star Zaira Wasim, who played the role of young Geeta Phogat in the film and won a National Award for her portrayal.
In Secret Superstar, Zaira's character's ambition to become a superstar is thwarted by her zealot father. She rebels and becomes a 'secret superstar' in any case. Did Zaira face opposition in real life to pursuit her career in acting? "Honestly, there was no barrier as such. The only barrier I had was I didn't know acting, I had never experienced anything like that. The kind of support I have always had from my family, I didn't consider any barrier at all. Aamir sir also guided and helped me so much."
Secret Superstar releases later this year on Diwali.
(With PTI inputs)
Aamir Khan said: "When I heard the story, I really liked it. When Advait (director Advait Chandan) asked me to do this role, I said I cannot see myself doing it. Even Kiran said the same. I said I'll do a screen test and if I do well, I'll take up the role. While doing it, I realised I was having fun." Kiran Rao added: "When we saw the screen test, all of us laughed so much. We were totally convinced that he can be this strange creepy person. He did it so well that we had to believe. But he wasn't the original fit."
Of his character in Secret Superstar, Aamir Khan told PTI: "It is a very unusual character for me. The character is very different from me. It was a challenge for me to play this character and make people believe that this character is like that."
But Aamir Khan is not the protagonist of Secret Superstar, which he produces with Kiran Rao. Aamir's Dangal co-star Zaira Wasim, who played the role of young Geeta Phogat in the film and won a National Award for her portrayal.
In Secret Superstar, Zaira's character's ambition to become a superstar is thwarted by her zealot father. She rebels and becomes a 'secret superstar' in any case. Did Zaira face opposition in real life to pursuit her career in acting? "Honestly, there was no barrier as such. The only barrier I had was I didn't know acting, I had never experienced anything like that. The kind of support I have always had from my family, I didn't consider any barrier at all. Aamir sir also guided and helped me so much."
Secret Superstar releases later this year on Diwali.
(With PTI inputs)
