Aamir Khan: 30 Years of Obsession Cost Him Family Time

Bollywood knows Aamir Khan as the perfectionist who chases the ideal shot, the rigorous performance and the next ambitious story. At the Singapore International Film Festival on Thursday, he offered a rarer view: a man reckoning with what three decades of that chase had cost.

A Covid-era wake-up call

Speaking after receiving the Screen Icon Award, Aamir said the pandemic forced him to pause long enough to see the pattern. Nearly 30 years had passed while he worked, he explained, and although that intensity may be understandable for one, two or five years, continuing for three decades changed the shape of his personal life.

His children had grown up. Relationships had drifted. The star fought back tears as he described what he called “a deep sense of loss,” and paused on stage to compose himself as the audience applauded.

Perhaps the most striking part was his framing: he was glad the realisation arrived when he was 56, not 86, while there was still time to act.

What has shifted since

Aamir said the last four years have been different. He has consciously tried to make space for family and close friends rather than letting work fill every waking hour.

• He has made room for family and close friends over the past four years.
• He has reframed success as something that must include relationships, not just films.
• He returns to the festival with the 25th-anniversary screening of Lagaan, his debut as a producer.

The earlier crisis he rarely revisits

The conversation also went back to the period after Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988). Fresh from that debut success, Aamir signed nine films within six months. When several began failing, he feared being remembered for that single success alone and came home in tears to his then-wife, Reena.

He described the feeling as being in quicksand: the more he struggled, the deeper he sank. That early anxiety, he suggested, was a different kind of pressure from the later family reckoning — one tested his confidence, the other made him question the point of success.

Why this matters for filmi fans

For an audience that has followed Aamir from QSQT to Lagaan, Secret Superstar and beyond, the confession reframes the glamour. It is a reminder that the discipline we admire on screen has an off-screen price. It also makes his current choices more interesting: a star known for long, involved projects now says he is actively protecting time away from the camera.

At the festival, the award was presented by Hong Kong filmmaker Peter Chan Ho-sun. Aamir last attended nine years ago with Secret Superstar; this year’s milestone Lagaan screening gives the return a fitting full-circle note.

Source: India Today