“My family didn't want me to be an actor”

In Bollywood blockbuster “3 Idiots', superstar Aamir Khan enacted the role of a young and curious engineer.  We do not know if he was reminded of the shape his own career graph shaped up – what he might have been and what he actually is today. For, as Aamir let the audience know during a panel discussion on the sideline of Mumbai International Film Festival on Friday night, that had his parents had their way, he could have ended up as a professional like chartered accountant, doctor or an engineer.

Aamir, son of director Tahir Hussain and nephew of filmmaker Nasir Husain, says that despite being from a film family, his parents were against the idea of him joining Bollywood as they found it uncertain.

 “At that time, almost everyone felt film industry was not a good place to be. My own family, Nasir sahab (Nasir Hussain) and papa jaan were telling me, 'no, don't go in films.' Both filmmakers were telling me not to go to make a career in cinema. Chacha jaan (Nasir), abba and ammi felt it was such a volatile profession,” 51-year-old Aamir said, adding his family wanted him to do something which was more 'stable'.

 “One minute you are up there, one minute you are not. There is no certainty or security. They wanted us to be more stable in life, to go into a profession which is more stable. Engineer, doctor, charted accountant. I wouldn't have managed to do any of these things. They wanted me to get into a good professional course.”

 “They didn't want me to go through the uncertainties and the traumas, in the volatile business that we are in,” he said.

Aamir said nevertheless he undertook a course at Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), though clandestinely, and the rest is history.