Actor Aamir Khan is currently busy with the promotions of his much-awaited film Laal Singh Chaddha, also starring Kareena Kapoor Khan. But do you know Aamir’s son Junaid Khan auditioned for the lead role in the film? Well, the Bollywood perfectionist’s son Junaid left Aamir “blown away” with his performance.
Ahead of the film’s release, Aamir spoke in length about why Junaid was not cast for the film. He also revealed that there was a point during the pre-production of the film when he wanted his son Junaid to play the titular role.
Speaking with selected media, Aamir shared, “As soon as I saw the test video, I was blown away. I knew mera chance gaya (I thought my chance has gone). That innocence of Laal that we were planning to get was out there while I would have to act it out. The innocence on his face was Laal Singh and I would have had to work incredibly hard to get there. I don’t have that innocence anymore and he did that naturally. Junaid was simply outstanding and I felt he was the right guy to play the part.”
He further added that he had shown Junaid’d rest clip to around 100 people including Rajkumar Hirani, Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra. He also revealed that he had grown his beard for six months for the role but since they were planning to cast his son, he shaved it off.
However, screenwriter Atul Kulkarni and producer Aditya Chopra were keen that Aamir should play the lead role in the film. Aamir said, “According to them, The story of Forrest Gump isn’t that solid. It’s an episodic movie that requires a star. A new actor can’t pull this off. So when the discussions came back around, I started to grow my beard again.”
Are you wondering how Junaid reacted to the development? Well, Aamir shared that his son is quite practical person and was against doing the film in the first place because he felt that the project is very high-budgeted for a newcomer. Aamir also revealed that the news of him not doing the film may have been disappointing for Junaid but it must have given him an important lesson.
He said, “Sometimes you may be really good but the time is not right.”
