Aamir Khan remembers his series of flops after Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak: ‘I used to come home and cry…’
Aamir Khan opens up about a low phase in his career during 2025 Hindustan Times Leadership Summit
In 1988, Aamir Khan began his journey as an actor. He made his debut with Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak opposite Juhi Chawla and became an overnight sensation. Almost four decades later, he is known across the globe as one of the biggest superstars of the country today. But it wasn't an easy journey. In fact, there was a time Aamir was termed as a 'one film wonder'. The actor was so unhappy with his work that he wod go home and cry every evening. During his appearance at the 2025 Hindistan Times Leadership Summit today, Aamir remembered his low point that came after QSQT in a chat with Sonal Kalra, Chief Managing Editor of Entertainment and Lifestyle HT.
When asked about a decision that transformed his career, Aamir Khan shared, “I think there was one decision in my life which I think was, because of which I am here today… I’ll have to give a little context before that. My first film Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak released, it was a big success, I became an overnight star and then I started getting a lot of offers for films. I wasn’t getting offers from the directors I wanted to work with. I had a list of directors I wanted to work with, but none of those directors approached me. I think at that time, even after a superhit like Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, you still have to establish yourself as a star before the A-graders want to work with you. So anyway, I was getting a lot of offers and I signed some 8-9 films thinking that the rest of the actors are doing 30, 40, 50 films so I think under 10 should be okay for me. That is what I thought. I had never worked like that. But when the shooting of these films began, I realised what a big mistake I had made.”
Aamir explained, “I’m not built to do 2-3 films together, 8-9 films together. So that is my first realisation. The second realisation was that I realised it’s very important to select the director. Your director is the captain of your ship. It’s very important to have the right director.” He continued to share, “So I realised in the first 6-8 months of working on these films that three things are very crucial for any film: script, the director and the producer. Unless these three are ticked off, I realised that I would not ever do a film again, and I was very unhappy with the work I was doing, to be honest, in the first couple of years of my career as an actor after Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak. I was very unhappy. I was not happy with the projects, my sensibility didn’t match the number of the people I was working with and to cut a long story short, these films started releasing eventually and they started bombing. Ek flop hui, doosri flop hui, teesri flop hui. And then I was labeled one film wonder by the media. And rightly so. Those 3-4 films which had not done well, had brought me to this situation, and the remaining 3, 4, 5, 6 films which I was working on which were about to come, I knew how bad they were.”
Aamir shared, “So I was like I’m sunk, because my career is going to go down the drain in this manner. And I swore to myself, because I was so unhappy I used to come home and cry in the evening. I was very unhappy with the work I was doing. SO I swore to myself, ‘Never again will I compromise with my work unless the director is someone I completely trust, the script is something that I really love, the producer is someone who has really produced the film well, released it well. Until these three things are in place, I am not going to take on another film, even if it means my career comes to an end.’ Which it was looking like it was coming to an end because my films were not doing well. I felt I’m stuck in quicksand. I was trying my level best to come out of it but the more I would struggle, the more I would sink.”
At that time in his career, Aamir was approached by filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt. The actor was thrilled because the director was on a rise and had made successful back to back films. But when the script was narrated to him, Aamir didn’t like it and he was disappointed. He took time to think about it and realised this was a turning point in his life. After a sleepless night, Aamir decided not to compromise with his heart, and respectfully declined the offer the next day. Aamir shared, “So Bhatt sahab said, ‘No no no, chill, don’t worry about all this. Why don’t you want to do it? Why did you not like it?’ So he went into discussions about the film. And that film never happened eventually. But what was really important was that when my back was against the wall, when I was at my lowest, when I thought my career is over and nothing is going to save me, even at that time, I had the conviction and courage to say no to something that I didn’t believe in. And that strength gave me the strength to take all the difficult decisions in my career after that.”
This decision led to films like Lagaan (2001) and Taare Zameen Par (2007). And for that, the audience is surely grateful to Aamir, the Mr Perfectionist of Bollywood.
