When Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par was released, it struck a chord with the masses due to its compelling story. The movie portrayed the protagonist, Ishaan Awasthi, struggling with dyslexia, a learning disability that makes reading, writing and spelling difficult. The film was eye-opening and deeply emotional as it made people realise that dyslexic people are not lazy. But for Aamir Khan, who directed and acted in the movie, it was more than a powerful script.

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When Aamir Khan read the script of Taare Zameen Par

Podcast page Just Too Filmy posted a video from a recent Taare Zameen Par fan-meet event attended by Aamir Khan. In the video, the actor revealed how the film’s script mirrored his son Junaid’s life. He shared that Junaid was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of six. Aamir said, “I haven’t shared this topic anywhere to date. I am talking about this for the first time. It’s because several years have passed. And the person I’m talking about has already mentioned it in public. I’m talking about my son Junaid. He is dyslexic.” Aamir recalled his reaction when he first read the script. Here’s what he said.

How Aamir Khan got to know about Junaid’s dyslexia

“When I first heard the story, it hit me so much because I’ve been through it myself. I too used to scold Junaid in the beginning, just like Nandkishore Awasthi in the movie. When he was little, he had bad handwriting. I used to say to him, ‘Junaid, how can someone write this badly? No one would be able to read it. What is it? You can’t even make an “A”?’ Genuinely, I used to ask him.” Aamir then explained how Junaid interpreted common prepositions. “When he used to read… He (Junaid) would say “of” or “from” instead of “for”. Whenever he saw an “F”, he used to guess the word “of”, “from”, or “for”. So, he couldn’t read properly. I tried to make him understand, but I also used to get confused. And later on, we got to know that he has dyslexia,” explained Aamir.

So, when Aamir Khan heard the story of Taare Zameen Par, he resonated instantly. He said, “It was my story. It was so close to me. But I didn’t tell anyone at that time, as only Junaid has the right to speak about himself. I cannot speak about him.” Junaid Khan recently talked about his condition in an interview with Vickey Lalwani. Here’s what he said.

Junaid Khan’s experience with dyslexia

When the interviewer learned about Junaid’s dyslexia, Vickey asked him if that led to the making of Taare Zameen Par. To this, Junaid said, “Actually, it was a bit the other way around. When they heard the script of Taare Zameen Par, they were like, ‘One second, we have seen this in our lives.’ It was at that point that they took me to specialists. I was diagnosed with dyslexia… I received a lot of help very early on. So, it didn’t affect me as much growing up. In that sense, I was lucky.”

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