In a whirlwind international tour kickstarting in Singapore, Aamir Khan unveiled the lead in his next movie Secret Superstar. 17-year old Zaira Wasim, who had starred in Aamir’s last production Dangal as the young Geeta Phogat and picked up a National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role, leads Khan’s next movie as Insia.
Set in Baroda, Gujarat, Secret Superstar follows 14-year old Insia’s journey to be a world-renowned singer and the lives she changes in her journey. The film is Advait Chandan’s debut directorial venture, with Chandan having worked on several other films such as Dhobi Ghat and Taare Zameen Par in other roles.
“Zaira is such a talented girl, probably the best actress we have in the Hindi industry today,” raved Khan at a media conference at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. “She is a gifted girl too. She took a week to master the Haryanvi accent (required for Dangal) whereas I took four months.”
With a razor-sharp focus on working on one film at a time, Secret Superstar is Khan’s piece de resistance at the moment – he hopes to reach out to youth as young as 12 years old to follow their own dreams.
The film releases globally on 19 October 2017.
