Amir Khan was born on 14 March 1965 in Mumbai to Tahir
Hussain, a film producer, and Zeenat Hussain. Several of his relatives were
members of the Hindi film industry, including his late paternal uncle, the
producer-director Nasir Hussain. He is related to the Indian philosopher
AbulKalam Azad who is related to him through his grandmother. Khan is the
eldest of four siblings; he has a brother, the actor Faisal Khan, and two
sisters, Farhat and Nikhat Khan. His nephew, Imran Khan, is a contemporary
Hindi film actor.
As a child, Khan appeared on screen in two minor roles. At
the age of eight, he appeared 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. Khan attended J.B. Petit
School for his pre-primary education, later switching to St. Anne's High
School, Bandra till the eight grade, and completed his ninth and tenth grade at
the Bombay Scottish School, Mahim. He played tennis in state level
championships, and has professed being "much more into sports than
studies". He completed his twelfth grade from Mumbai's NarseeMonjee
College. Khan described his childhood as "tough" due to the financial
problems faced by his father whose film productions were mostly unsuccessful;
he said, "there would be at least 30 calls a day from creditors calling
for their money" and he was always at risk of being expelled from school
for non-payment of fees.
At the age of sixteen, Khan was involved in the
experimental process of making a 40-minute silent film, entitled Paranoia, that was directed by his
school friend Aditya Bhattacharya. The film was funded by the filmmaker
ShriramLagoo, an acquaintance of Bhattacharya, who provided them with a few
thousand rupees. Khan's parents opposed to his joining films due to their own
experiences, wishing that he would instead pursue a "steady" career
of an engineer or doctor, and thus the shooting schedule of Paranoia was a clandestine one. In
the film, he played the lead role alongside actors Neena Gupta and Victor
Banerjee, while simultaneously assisting Bhattacharya. He said that the
experience of working on it encouraged him to pursue a career in film.
Khan subsequently joined a theatre group called Avantar,
where he performed backstage activities for over a year. He made his stage
debut with a small role in the company's Gujarati play, Kesar Bina, at Prithvi Theatre. He went on to two of their Hindi
plays, and one English play, which was titled Clearing House. After completing his high-school education Khan
decided to discontinue studying, despite the objection of his parents, choosing
instead to work as an assistant director to Nasir Hussain on two Hindi films—ManzilManzil (1984) and Zabardast (1985).
Khan first appeared on screen as a child actor in his uncle
Nasir Hussain's film Yaadon Ki Baaraat
(1973). His first feature film role came with the experimental film Holi (1984), and he began a full-time
acting career with a leading role in the highly successful tragic romance Qayamat Se QayamatTak (1988). His
performance in the film and in the thriller Raakh (1989) earned him a Special Jury Award at the National
Film Award ceremony. He established himself as a leading actor of Hindi cinema
in the 1990s by appearing in several commercially successful films, including
the romantic drama Dil (1990),
the romance Raja Hindustani
(1996), for which he won his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor, and the drama
Sarfarosh (1999). He was also
noted for playing against type in the critically acclaimed Canadian-Indian film
Earth (1998).
In 2001, Khan started a production company, whose first
release, Lagaan, was nominated
for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and earned him a National
Film Award for Best Popular Film and two more Filmfare Awards (Best Actor and
Best Film). After a four-year absence from the screen, Khan continued to portray
leading roles, most notably in the 2006 box-office hits Fanaa and Rang De
Basanti. The following year, he made his directorial debut with TaareZameen Par, a major success that
garnered him the Filmfare Awards for Best Film and Best Director. Khan's
greatest commercial successes came with the thriller Ghajini (2008), the comedy-drama 3 Idiots (2009), the adventure film Dhoom 3 (2013), and the satire PK (2014), all of which held records for being the
highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time.
In addition to acting, Khan is a humanitarian and has
participated and spoken out for various social causes, some of which have
sparked political controversy. He has created, and featured as the host of the
television talk show SatyamevJayate
through which he highlights sensitive social issues in India. Khan was married
to his first wife, Reena Dutta, for fifteen years after which he married the
film director Kiran Rao. He has three children—two with Dutta, and one with Rao
through surrogacy.
