Birthday Special: Shaayad Hi Itnaa Ameer Actor Pahele Kabhi Chaaya Hogaa Hindi Cinema Par

He was never the academic kind and did not show any signs of being a perfectionist in his studies and preferred to learn the basics of film making from his renowned uncle Nasir Husain, his father, Tahir Husain and much later his cousin, Mansoor Khan - ALI PETER JOHN

He was known for his sense of keen observation and pointing out flaws in even his seniors and those working with them, so what if it was Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra, Asha Parekh or Zeenat Aman and little said about his relationship with others the better.

It was his uncle Nasir Husain who first thought of casting him as a child artist in his multi-starrar, "Yaadon Ki Baaraat".

He was to play the youngest of the three brothers who join their parents in singing the song, "yaadon ki baaraat nikli hai aaj dil ke dwaar se".

The little master was to play a toy guitar during the song and his uncle and the entire unit was taken by complete surprise when he refused to shoot unless his fingers matched the tune in the song and it was only when he was satisfied that an entire unit of hundreds of people were relieved.

More than twenty years later, Aamir Khan who was a major young star now was shooting for a multi-starrer called "Parampara" directed by Yash Chopra who was paid the highest price any director was paid till then.

A party song in which the entire star cast was to participate was being picturised at the Mehboob Studio.

It was now the piano that became a problem. Even a filmmaker like Yash Chopra did not pay any great attention to the way the actors played the various instruments, but the complete shooting came to a standstill when it was time for Aamir to move his fingers on the keys of the piano.

The stars and the crowd kept waiting for the perfectionist to get his movements right and by the time he said he was ready, it was time for pack up for the day and Yash Chopra had a good pull at his long grey hair and said, "naak mein dam kar diya iss launde ne.

Kasam se maine bade bade stars ke saath kaam kiya hai, lekin aisa paagal nahi dekha. Ho sakega toh main toh aise perfectionist ke saath aage kaam nahi karoonga".

It was around the same time that the perfectionist in the making was shooting two films with Mahesh Bhatt, "Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin" (a blatant copy of the Hollywood film, "Roman Holiday") and another film which was also a copy called "Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke".

The perfectionist gradually realised that Mahesh Bhatt the director was either drunk or was nursing a bad hangover and his mind was not in his work.

Especially when a dance or scenes with children were to be picturised and the perfectionist did not think twice before asking Bhatt to go home and relax and took over the shooting of the rest of the film and Mahesh Bhatt could not say a word.

He was now a star and was shooting for a film called "Ghulam" in which Rani Mukherjee made a striking come back after two miserable flops, especially with the song, "Aati kya Khandala".

The highlight of the film however was the train sequence in which Aamir Khan was to run across a speeding train and the unit warned him not to take a risk

But he was Aamir Khan and the industry now knew him as the perfectionist who would not mind taking any risks if they made an impact on the film.

Aamir did the scenes and missed sure death by a whisker and the scene not only became a highlight of the film, but a highlight in the history of action sequences and a landmark in the career of the Khan who now for the first time was openly being called "Mr. Perfectionist".

The first phase of his career consisted of the usual kind of romantic films, but he was damn serious even when he had to do the most silly scenes with Madhuri Dixit in a film like "Dil " and he followed the same pattern of bringing perfection into every scene in all the films till he entered the second phase of his career with serious films like "Sarfarosh " with Naseerudddin Shah as his arch rival and the new Mr. Perfectionist made it a point to see that the master actor, Naseer did not take away the limelight from him in any scene.

It was at this stage of his growing career that he had his first panga with private awards. He was told about his winning an award for the best actor for one of his films and when the category of awards was announced, his name was nowhere.

To be heard about. The award had gone to a senior Khan who is said to have paid a price for the award.

That was the last time Aamir accepted any private award and also made it his unwritten rule that not only would he accept awards, but he would not allow anyone else to accept awards on his behalf.

It was in this connection that he is said to have given a tongue lashing to the veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar for accepting one of his awards and is supposed to have thrashed his brother, Faisal Khan for committing the same crime.

He made it clear that he was only open to National or International Awards but organizers and juries kept declaring him the winner and a precious award went waste but he did not care.

He would not change his rule. At a recent function to felicitate him for working on the Paani Foundation and doing more than what several governments of Maharashtra had not done in fifty-eight years, his friend and admirer, Raj Thackeray who openly admitted that he was a great fan of his mitr (friend), "Aamir bhai" and told the audience that he was aware of his not accepting awards, but pleaded with Aamir to accept the Ramon Magsaysay Award which he said Aamir would surely win for the Yeoman service he has been doing for the farmers of Maharashtra and among those who agreed with Raj and applauded Aamir were the present Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis and all the previous Chief Ministers who were still alive.

Aamir the Mr. Perfectionist entered his most crucial phase of doing films like "Lagaan" and "Taare Zameen Par ".

He literally took over the direction of both films from his best friends, Amole Gupte and Ashutosh Gowarikar.

Amole's only fault was that he could not handle the child artist Darsheel Safary suffering from a rare ailment and he was not getting the feel he wanted of the time needed to be captured in “Lagaan” by Ashutosh.

Mr. Perfectionist put everything, every little scene in order and that was what made “Lagaan” the classic it became.

One can never forget how he wanted only the late A. K Hangal for a particular scene and he went out of his way to get an ailing Hangal flown down to the location in a flight where there was only one passenger and that was Hangal who was perhaps doing the last scene of his life and said he had never been treated so royally by any other unit.

He died a few months later. And even on his death bed, he kept talking about the days he shot for “Lagaan”.

Perfection had now become an intrinsic part of Aamir' s life as a complete filmmaker and he relentlessly proved it with films like "Mangal Pandey", "Rang De Basanti " , "Faana" and other films which marked him out in a class by himself.

But the glorious era of Mr. Perfectionist consisted of one outstanding film after another, what with films like "3 Idiots", PK and "Dangal ".

He proved his perfection to excel in each of these films, but not as much as he did in “Dangal”.

He put on weight once to look like a wrestler and then lost all that weight to look like a normal hero.

Some doctors said it was a very risky decision but Aamir being Aamir had just to do it to be perfect.

Every performance of Mr. Perfectionist was worth a string of awards, but for him it was the way these films reached an International audience that really mattered.

These films broke new records and established Hindi films and Aamir as a major Indian star in China, Japan, Taiwan and almost all the North Eastern countries of the world.

Mr. Perfectionist had created a world of his own and audiences were willing to accept him as the king of their hearts which ever country, race or community or religion they belonged to. Aamir had finally reached his goal, or had he?

The man who has fought a one-man valiant one-man battle to reach where he has today, has now reached the cross roads of his illustrious career.

The perfectionist who has never shied or been scared away by challenges now faces the biggest challenge of his life and career.

He is now totally involved with a dicey and DIFFICULT film like " Lal Singh Chadda". At a time when Sikhs are in the focus all over the country , he has put all at stake to live up to his image as a perfectionist by playing a Sikh in the film which is an adaptation of the Hollywood film , "Forrest Gump" .

The film is directed by Advait Chandan who last made "Secret Superstar" but anyone who knows Aamir will know who the mind behind the film is.

Aur aamir khan ki kahani yahaan khatam thodi naa ho sakti hain? Sikhne waale ki kahaani kabhi khatam nehi hoti.

CHEEN MEIN SABSE NAAMCHEEN KAUN?

India and China might be grappling to resolve the worst military standoff in decades at the border.

But for Aamir Khan's Chinese fans, Sunday, March 14 was the day to celebrate his 56th birthday with love and a large cake.

A bunch of Khan's fans from the Aamir Khan China Fan Club - or a+ as it is called - gathered at the Indian embassy on Aamir's birthday to cut a cake, sing birthday songs, watch clips from his popular movies and read out letters addressed to the actor from admirers across China.

Several clips of earlier events related to Khan were shown including one on a young Chinese woman, Karen, who was invited to the actor's home a few years ago.

The Chinese remake of the Dhaakad music video from Dangal was screened during the two-hour event.

The fan club a+ boasts of a million followers on its Chinese social media handles Weibo and Douyin. It organises events related to Khan and his movies in various cities.

This year marked the first time that a+ held Khan's birthday event at the Indian embassy.

Khan's Dangal and Secret Superstar were big hits in China - even as the Doklam standoff raged in 2017. Many of his followers also fondly remember hit flicks such as 3 Idiots and PK.

In the letters that were read out at the event, fans wrote about how Khan's movies had a positive impact on their lives.

Yang Ajie, who calls herself the 'leader' of the fan club, said Khan is like a 'cultural bridge' between India and China. Yang said most of his movies 'emotionally' connect with Chinese audiences.

Citing the example of the theme of 3 Idiots, she said Chinese college students face similar problems such as tough competition in academics and competitive exams, which are not easy to crack.

In Secret Superstar's plot, a tender mother-daughter relationship found empathy among the Chinese, she said.

'Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to call him a cultural bridge between China and India.

At the same time, he has a huge fan base in China and also maintains good interactions with fans from all over the country,' the fan club said in a message ahead of the event.

Though his Chinese fans will love it, it remains to be seen if Khan will visit China ahead of his next release Laal Singh Chaddha.