Aamir Khan talks about Junaid's dyslexia, says he was like Ishaan's father in Taare Zameen Par: ‘I used to scold him'

Hindustan Times

3 days ago

Back in February this year, during the promotions of his first theatrical release Loveyapa, Khushi Kapoor's co-star and fellow star kid Junaid Khan revealed that he was diagnosed with dyslexia in his childhood. In a viral interview clip, when asked how he overcame the challenge, Junaid said his parents Aamir Khan and Reena Dutta were very supportive. The star kid went on to point out that his actor-filmmaker father even made Taare Zameen Par, the 2007 film which helped raise awareness about dyslexia. Well, ahead of the film's sequel Sitaare Zameen Par's release, Aamir opened up about Junaid's dyslexia diagnosis for the first time at a fan-meet.
Aamir Khan, who is currently promoting the much-awaited Sitaare Zameen Par co-starring Genelia Deshmukh, shared how the story of Taare Zameen Par hit him very hard when he first heard it. This was because the actor had been through the same when his son Junaid Khan was growing up. But was Aamir as supportive as his character Ram Shankar Nikumbh was to his student Ishaan Awasthi, played by Darsheel Safary? Well, not at the beginning. Aamir revealed, 'I was like Nandkishore Awasthi in the beginning (the father from Taare Zameen Par). I used to scold Junaid.'
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Aamir went on to remember, 'So I would tell him, 'Junaid, how can someone write so badly? No one can even read this. What is it? You can't even write an A? What's going on?' I genuinely used to ask him. And when he used to read, he would say 'from' instead of 'for'. Whenever he saw an 'F', he would just guess the word- of, from, for. He couldn't read properly. So I used to try to explain things to him, and I would get confused too — how can he not understand such simple things? Then later on, we found out he has dyslexia. And of course, we helped him with that. But when I heard the story, it felt like my story. It was so close to me.'
Aamir grew as a father over the years, alongside his son Junaid. We wish them all the happiness as we eagerly wait for Sitaare Zameen Par to arrive in theatres on June 20.