Several fans of Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan were left in a state of shock when the actor revealed that he decided to quit the film industry in the midst of the pandemic, but reversed his decision after his family staged an intervention.
In a recent interview with news channel ABP, the actor, who’s known for starring in award-winning films such as ‘Dil’, ‘Ghulaam’, ‘Rangeela’, ‘Lagaan’, ‘3 Idiots’ and many more, revealed that his decision to quit acting came about when COVID-19 was raging in India.
When the interviewer asked Khan, 57, if he’s ever wanted to quit the film industry, the actor replied: “No I quit. Nobody knows this. I’m saying for the first time, you will be shocked. I had informed my family that I won’t be doing any films from now onwards. Neither I’ll act nor I will produce any films. I don’t want to do all this. I just want to spend my time with you all.”
Khan further reveled that he made the announcement in the presence of his entire family, including his ex-wife Reena and her parents, his children from that marriage, along with his second wife, filmmaker Kiran Rao, with whom he’s in the midst of divorcing, along with her parents and their son Azad.
“My family was shocked as I was conveying it to them in such an intense way. Nobody argued with me. Then I thought I should tell people that I won’t be acting in films now. Then I said if I tell people they will say, ‘This is his marketing scheme as his film ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ is about to release, he is announcing his retirement’,” Khan continued.
The actor then decided to keep mum until the release of his long-awaited remake of Hollywood film ‘Forrest Gump’. “Anyway, my film comes after three or four years. Once ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ gets released nobody will realise if I’m doing anything for the next three or four years. By then I’ll leave the industry and nobody will know,” Khan continued. “So I decided not to say anything and three months passed like this. One day, my children told me that you are an extreme person, don’t do this. It will be better if you find a balance in life. I had quit films. In my heart, I had left films.
“My children and Kiran explained to me I am doing the wrong thing. Kiran cried and said, ‘When I see you, I see films residing inside you. What are you saying I’m unable to understand’. A lot happened in two years, I quit the industry and came back.”
With a career spanning 38 years, not counting his stint as a child star, Khan is considered one of the most bankable stars in Bollywood. His much-awaited ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ is set to release on August 11, following which, the actor will star in ‘Mogul’, which is a biopic on the rise of Gulshan Kumar, the T-Series founder and film producer, who was gunned down in 1997.
