Kiran Rao advised Aamir against taking up role in Secret Superstar, here's why

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 her to act for the longest time because she is fantastic. 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 of 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, “In college, I enjoyed 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 retire, 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 number 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 Aamir plays her mentor. The actor reveals that 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 it was then that I was enjoying it. It was a challenge to play a character, which is so different from the real 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.” Aamir also paid tribute to the late Bollywood photographer Raju Upadhyay at the event.