Bollywood actor Aamir Khan’s daughter Ira spoke to ET Times about how she came to recognize her bad mental health, stating that it was her parents’ divorce that triggered the episode. The actor and his first wife, Reena Dutta, divorced amicably in 2002, however, Ira revealed that both Aamir and Reena made her feel that it “was not a big deal”.
The mental health activist went on to say that because of Aamir and Reena’s divorce, she had mental misunderstandings but never found the courage to discuss them with anyone. Hence, she “blames herself’ for suffering from depression, believing erroneously that one had to be sad to get love from others. On a positive note, she said that now she is working on making herself happy, and has a better relationship with her parents.
Ira revealed she is in a group chat with her parents and reaches out to them every time she is in need, while her fiance Nupur Shikhare is one of her strongest supporters.
Ira recently made national headlines when she revealed to a publication that mental health disorders run in her family:
“Every 8-10 months I will have a big crash. It’s partly genetic, partly psychological, and partly social. It took me a while to figure it out. But I have mental health disorders in my family. I also did not make healthy choices and I systematically walked into depression.”
Speaking to The Times Of India, Aamir Khan’s second daughter Ira opened up about mental health struggles, especially with clinical depression which she was diagnosed with five years ago. It was through the help of her father, film star Aamir, that she began seeking help for her mental illness, and learned that her family has a history of mental health disorders.
Khan revealed that altough her parents divorce had not impacted her much, there were still signs that led her to believe something was wrong and led her to come back to India from the Netherlands:
“My mom pointed out that I didn’t want to be alive so I would just sleep my day away so that I would have fewer hours to live in a day.”
Ira said she was on medication now, but still experiences bouts of anxiety, which is taking some time for her to understand how mental health issues are common in her family.
“Every 8-10 months I will have a big crash. It’s partly genetic, partly psychological, and partly social. It took me a while to figure it out. But I have mental health disorders in my family. I also did not make healthy choices and I systematically walked into depression.”
Khan spoke about the organisation she had set up Agastu Foundation, which aimed at education people about mental health support and providing them with resources to get better. Her parents, Aamir and Reena Dutta, are both members of the advisory board, and her dad had helped in setting up until Ira was able to recieve funding.
Actor Shaan Shahid while promoting his forthcoming film, Zarrar chatted over his career, controversies, and colleagues, exclusively with The Current.
On being asked about why he rejected the Bollywood film Ghajini starring Aamir Khan and Asin, Shaan said, “There are some differences between the two nations (India and Pakistan), so picking up a villain from Pakistan puts more pressure and limelight on that relationship. Unko Villain sirf yahan pe nazar aatay hain or heroes sirf wahan pe. (They only see villains in Pakistan and heroes in India.)
The veteran actor added, “Also, the geopolitical system, Both India and Pakistan have a lot of baggage of the past and in the present as well. I think whatever is happening in India with Muslims is heartbreaking. I believe as a person you start creating an opinion and you have a set of rules or morals or values that you would rather put before making a financial decision.”
Moving forward, we asked Shaan if he gets offered a remake or a sequel of his 2006 Punjabi blockbuster Majajan, then who would be his preferred leading ladies? The film was released on 24 March 2006, across Pakistan. Majajan celebrated its Diamond Jubilee (100 weeks) in Lahore’s cinemas.
The Khuda Kay Liye star excitedly revealed that he finds Mahira to be very good and would want her as one of the heroines, whereas he wants to rope in Mehwish Hayat as his other leading lady as he finds her to be stunning as well.
On being quipped further, Shahid mentioned that he would like to see Mahira essaying Saima Khan’s character of a courtesan and Mehwish in Madiha Shah’s role.
Film’s synopsis
Zil-e-Shah (Shaan), an unhappily married man who belongs to the Syed clan, falls in love with a courtesan, by the name of Taari (Saima) who arrives to perform in his village. His wife (Madiha Shah) and family condemn their relationship.
Biopic Woes
On being asked by the host Uzair Anwer that if a biopic gets made on him, which young actor would he want to essay him in the film? The veteran artist was given four options (Hamza Ali Abbasi, Ahad Raza Mir, Bilal Abbas, and Imran Ashraf).
Watch his answer in the interview attached below:
The Majajan hero wasn’t too excited about these younger actors playing him in his biopic. He In fact hinted that it should be Shaan himself who should feature in a film based on him.
Shaan stated, “I think if they would have cast Sanjay Dutt in Sanju (2018), it would have been better. I personally feel that a biopic should be made on an actor when he passes away.”
He added, “Jesa bhi kaam kartay hain, they are all good actors, and they’ll approach the character according to their own set of skills.”
Shahid concluded by saying, “Its a difficult question and I haven’t yet given it a thought.”
Multiple A-list Bollywood celebrities use social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter to interact with their fans on a regular basis. However most of them have been disturbed due to massive trolling and negative comments by anonymous netizens.
Every now and then, netizens are seen writing abusive and toxic comments under their posts. This month, renowned filmmaker Karan Johar quit Twitter. Earlier, celebs like Aamir Khan, Sonakshi Sinha and others too had deactivated their Twitter accounts.
Here’s a list of celebrities who decided to quit the micro-blogging site in the past:
Karan Johar
On October 10, Karan Johar posted his last tweet and announced that he is quitting Twitter. He has been facing a lot of trolling online. His chat show, Koffee with Karan 7 grabbed a lot of attention like always but this time, people were seen targeting him for constantly mentioning mommy-to-be Alia Bhatt’s name throughout the season. During the finale episode, Karan went on to reveal that even Alia pointed out the same thing and asked him to not mention her. In his last tweet, Karan said that he is leaving Twitter to ‘make space for more positive energies’. His tweet read, “Making space for more positive energies only and this is step one towards that. Goodbye Twitter!”
Sonakshi Sinha
In 2020, Sonakshi announced her decision to leave Twitter to ‘stay away from negativity’. She quit the platform after Sushant Singh Rajput’s sudden demise. The actress took to Instagram and shared the update with her fans. Her post read, “The first step to protecting your sanity is to stay away from negativity. And nowhere more of that than Twitter these days. Chalo I’m off– deactivating my account. Bye guys, peace out. Aag lage basti mein… mein apni masti mein! Bye Twitter.”
Aamir Khan
In 2021, after celebrating his birthday, Aamir shared a note with his fans to update them about his decision to leave social media. He revealed that he wanted to focus on work and keep himself dedicated to his art. Before exiting, Aamir wrote, “Hey guys, thank you so much for all the love and warmth on my birthday. My heart is full. In other news, this is going to be my last post on social media. Considering that I am SO active anyway. I have decided to drop the pretence. We will continue to communicate as we did before. In addition, AKP has created its official channel! So future updates on me and my films can be found there. Here’s the official handle! @akppl_official. Lots of love, always. a.”
Saqib Saleem
Saqib also decided to leave Twitter and cited ‘bullying and lack of kindness’ as the main reasons. He shared a long note with his fans and thanked them for their love. A part of his note read, “Hey Twitter, when we met for the first time, you were a lovely. A great platform to express feelings, gather knowledge and understand many different points of view. But, of late you seem to have gotten lost in all the hate everyone is so ready to throw at each other, a place of bullies, a place where abusing people is a normal code of conduct. These last few days have forced me to realise that I don’t need this kind of energy in my life, where I wake up to hatred, where kindness is lost. It has made me realise that I need to surround myself with people, things, content and vibes that reflect who I want to be and how I want to feel; energies are contagious!”
Shashank Khaitan
Dhadak director Shashank Khaitan also quit the platform after Sushant’s demise in 2020. Amid the nepotism debate, he called Twitter a ‘breeding ground for hate and negativity’. His post read, “Done with twitter… just a breeding ground for hate and negativity… very sad that a platform so powerful, could not be used to create a better world… praying for peace and love always… deactivating my account now…”
Zaheer Iqbal
Zaheer Iqbal made his Bollywood debut alongside Pranutan Bahl in Notebook and Salman Khan backed the film. He also bid goodbye to Twitter without revealing any particular reason. The actor is rumoured to be dating Sonakshi.
Aayush Sharma
Salman’s brother-in-law Aayush Sharma also decided to leave Twitter due to negativity. He took to Instagram and wrote, “280 characters are less to define a human being. But 280 characters are more than enough to spread fake news, hatred and negativity. Didn’t sign up for this nasty herd mentality. Khuda hafiz.”
Bollywood Superstar Aamir Khan needs no introduction as his decades-long career is enough for it. He has credited several super hit movies in his name. Some of them are PK, Dangal, Lagaan, Ghajini, Dhoom 3 and Dil Chahta Hai.
According to Bollywood Hungama, Aamir is currently in a state of shock and stress, considering the massive failure of Laal Singh Chaddha. The film has collected less than 50 crore at the box office despite being a festive release.
“Aamir had worked really hard to make the best version of Forrest Gump possible. The rejection has hit him very hard,” says a close friend of Aamir and his former wife Kiran Rao.
The immediate aftermath of this colossal setback may get monetary compensation for film distributors across the country who have lost heavily on Laal Singh Chaddha.
Apparently Aamir, as co-producer, has taken responsibility for the film’s failure and is working at partially compensating for the heavy losses incurred by distributors.
Earlier this month trade Analyst Ali Zain shared on his Twitter handle that Khan has submitted his big-budget film, Laal Singh Chadda for NOC in Pakistan.
Although Indian films are currently banned in Pakistan, this could have initiated a new wave of Bollywood mania in Pakistani cinema houses.
On the recent boycott Twitter trend for his film, the Rang De Basanti star said, “Yes, I feel sad. Also, I feel sad that some of the people who are saying this, in their hearts, believe that I am someone who doesn’t like India. In their hearts, they believe, but it is untrue. It is rather unfortunate that some people feel that way. That’s not the case. Please don’t boycott my film. Please watch my film.”
In 2015, Aamir came under fire for his comments about ‘intolerant India’. “When I chat with Kiran at home, she says ‘Should we move out of India?’ That’s a disastrous and big statement for Kiran to make. She fears for her child. She fears what the atmosphere around us will be. She feels scared to open the newspapers every day,” he had said.
“I never said India was intolerant or I wanted to leave the country. I also understand the emotions of those who were hurt. I would like to say that my statement was misunderstood and to some extent, the media is responsible for it. I was born here and I will die here,” Aamir had later responded.
The hashtag #BoycottLaalSinghChaddha has close to 70,000 tweets and people have been actively trolling the lead actors. From Kareena’s statement on nepotism and asking people to not watch her films if they don’t want to in an old video to Aamir’s controversial scenes “against Hinduism” in his films to asking for justice for late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, there are many reasons being pointed out by social media users.
Earlier in an interview with News18, the actor opened on why he gave up alcohol. In the interview, he said that he used to down the entire bottle but later felt it was not okay.
While speaking to the news portal, the Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak actor said, “I used to drink sometimes, but I don’t anymore. Some people take two pegs and they are sorted. But I was never one of those who drank regularly. I used to drink on occasions, but whenever I did sit down to drink, I would down the entire bottle. And I felt that that was not okay.”
He further added that nothing major had happened with him in the state of intoxication that he would regret later. “The fact that a person is no longer under their own control, that didn’t sit well with me,” concluded the Dhoom 3 hero.
Aamir consumed a bottle of vodka to shoot for the song ‘Tere Ishq Mein Nachenge’ in the 1996 film ‘Raja Hindustani’.
In August 2021. Bollywood star Aamir Khan announced his divorce from his second wife Kiran Rao. This came as a shock to all his fans but the couple decided to co-parent their 9-year-old son, Azaad Khan.
Now, according to the latest reports in the Indian media, the Dhoom 3 actor is all set to announce his third marriage post the release of Laal Singh Chaddha costarring Kareena Kapoor.
Aamiralso has two children from his first marriage with Reena Dutta named Junaid and Ira. His son is set to debut in a Yash Raj film next year.
Netizens have been speculating that Aamir will announce his third wedding after the release of his next film or else it could hamper the box office performance of the film.
An article in Indian press has claimed that the superstar is getting married to none other than his on-screen daughter from film Dangal, Fatima Sana Shaikh.
Neither of the two stars have given an official clarification on the rumours yet.
The duo is speculated to be dating ever since they signed their second film Thugs of Hindostan.
Earlier the Ludo diva addressed their dating rumours in an interview.
“A bunch of strangers, whom I’ve never met, are writing things about me. They don’t even know if there’s any truth to it. People reading it assume that I’m ‘not a good person’. You feel like telling that person, ‘Ask me, I’ll give you an answer. It disturbs me because I don’t want people to assume wrong things.”
Bollywood film, The Kashmir Files has recently been released in India which has ignited the environment of hatred against Muslims. It is based on the 1990 exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir valley.
The film is written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri. The film cast includes Mithun Chakraborty, Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumar, and Pallavi Joshi.
Some hatred incidents were reported after people watched the film in cinemas. Anti-Muslim slogans were chanted by the audience.
After watching the film, One man stood from his seat and loudly said, “If every (Hindu) man started marrying (Muslim) girls then their population will be reduced to half after three generations. They will give birth to less number of children. We are watching a film here and Muslims are increasing population at home.” Later, people started chanting “Jai Shri Ram”.
This is call for extermination.
Theatres used to be a safe space for everyone: for couples, for minorities, for friends. Muslims have been robbed of one more comfortable public space today. Muslims going to theatres now stand the risk of mob violence. pic.twitter.com/Uwe8XHBRZa
Indian Journalist, Mohammed Zubair has shared a clip from a cinema hall where a man was shouting to boycott Bollywood films, especially of Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan. He used vulgar language against these actors.
The audience joined with him and started chanting, “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and “Vande Mataram”.
The film has fuelled the violence and hate against Muslims in the current radical situation of the country.
This is a video from outside a cinema hall in #Delhi, the capital of the #india. #KashmirFiles has spoiled the atmosphere of the country by showing the film Request to the Chief Minister of Delhi @ArvindKejriwal, please protect Delhi or save the environment from getting worse. pic.twitter.com/5BRqnGgfTV
The Indian government openly endorsed the film in the public. Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut recently crictised A-list celebrities for not promoting ‘The Kashmir Files’.
One user also slammed Ajay Devgn for not saying a single word for ‘The Kashmir Files’ but he is promoting the ad campaign of Shah Rukh Khan instead.
Akshay Kumar and Yami Gautam are among A-list Bollywood stars who talked about the film.
Hearing absolutely incredible things about your performance in #TheKashmirFiles@AnupamPKher Amazing to see the audience back to the cinemas in large numbers. Hope to watch the film soon. Jai Ambe. https://t.co/tCKmqh5aJG
Being married to a Kashmiri Pandit, I know first hand of the atrocities that this peace-loving community has gone through. But majority of the nation is still unaware. It took us 32 years and a film to get to know the truth. Please watch and support #TheKashmirFiles . https://t.co/rjHmKVmiXZ
British-Pakistani boxer Amir Khan was removed from an American Airlines plane along with a colleague.
Amir posted a video message on his social media account, in which he expressed his displeasure over the incident saying, “Disgusted to be banned by @AmericanAir and @traveloneworld for not been able to fly to training camp, i got escorted by police off the plane for no reason. I would like to see evidence for any wrong doings.”
“I was taken off the plane today when I was going to training camp to Colorado Springs, by the police,” said Amir in the video message.
“Obviously a complaint was made by American Airlines staff, they said that my colleague’s mask was not high enough and not up, that they had to stop the plane and take me and my friend off when I did nothing wrong,” he added.
The boxer continued by saying, “Now I have to reschedule another airplane to travel back to training camp which is really upsetting, for no reason this was and I’m just so disgusted that American Airlines would do this to us and ban me from travelling.”
American Airlines said in a statement that before take-off, the aircraft had “returned to the gate to deplane two customers who reportedly refused to comply with repeated crew member requests to stow luggage, place cell phones in airplane mode and adhere to federal face covering requirements,” The Guardian has reported.
After coming under fire for allegedly littering in Ladakh while shooting Laal Singh Chaddha, Aamir Khan’s production house has issued an official statement debunking the allegations.
In a statement released on Aamir Khan Productions’ (AKP) official Instagram handle, the makers of the film stated that none of the accusations against the actor and his crew are true and that they are taking utmost care about keeping the environment clean.
The statement read, “To whomsoever, it may concern, AKP would like to clarify that as a company we follow strict protocols for cleanliness in and around our shooting spaces. We have a team that makes sure that the location is kept trash-free at all times. At the end of the day, there`s a recheck of the entire location. At the end of the entire schedule, we make sure that when we leave a location, we leave it as clean or cleaner than we found it.”
“We believe that there are some rumours/allegations about our location not being kept clean. We strongly deny such claims. Our location is always open to relevant local authorities to carry out checks anytime they like,” concluded the statement released by Khan’s production house.
A social media user by the username Jigmat Ladakhi had earlier shared a video on Twitter, showing the entire area littered with used plastic bottles. He criticised the “gift” Khan’s film had “left for the villagers of Wakha in Ladakh”.
He even pointed out that the actor propounds environmental cleanliness on his social awareness show Satyamev Jayate. The user wrote, “This is the gift Bollywood star Aamir Khan’s upcoming movie Laal Singh Chaddha has left for the villagers of Wakha in Ladakh. Aamir Khan himself talks big about environmental cleanliness at Satyamev Jayate but this is what happens when it comes to himself.” The film reunites Aamir and Kareena Kapoor Khan, who last worked together in 3 Idiots.
Meanwhile, it was reported earlier that Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan will also appear in cameo roles in the upcoming film. Being the most anticipated release of this year, the movie is slated to hit the big screens at Christmas.
The shoot of the film was halted in March as the main lead, Aamir, got infected with Covid-19. After his recovery and control of the second wave in India, the shoot has started again.
Sarwat Gilani has shared her unfulfilled desire of working with Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan.
The Churails actress hosted a Q and A session on Instagram and one of the fans asked her about any wish of hers that was not fulfilled till date. Sarwat replied: “To work with Aamir Khan.”
When asked to choose between Mahira Khan and Humayun Saeed, the Jawani Phir Nahi Ani actress chose both.
A fan asked that if Sarwat was doing a movie, the Khasara actress said: “Yes, and I’m super excited to talk about it soon.”
Earlier the Dil-e-Muztar star revealed that she was approached for a film opposite the Late Irrfan khan which couldn’t materialize due to the political turmoil.
