Mumbai: Bollywood’s ‘Mr Perfectionist’ Aamir Khan has been contemplating quitting the industry for quite some time.
The actor’s former wife Kiran Rao had revealed in an interview earlier that Aamir had decided to stop making films during the COVID-19 pandemic and spend time with family. But his family persuaded him to reconsider the decision.
Now, Aamir himself has said that he wants to retire after 10 years, and hence has taken up six films at a time.
“I have never taken up six movies together in my life. This time, I had my own reason for it. When I finally decided that, ‘Okay, I won’t leave films yet’, the next thought came to me that this is probably the last 10 years of my active working life,” Aamir told The Hollywood Reporter India.
“You can’t trust life, we might die tomorrow. So, I am saying, I roughly have 10 years of active life. I am 59. Till I am 70, I will hopefully be well enough to be productive. So, then I thought, let me make my last 10 years the most productive,” he added.
The actor also expressed his desire to help budding talents in the industry.
“More than that, as I am getting older, I want to support talent which I believe in – writers, directors, all creative people. I want to become a platform for talents I believe in before I retire at 70. That’s why I took up more films,” he said.
Not convinced with Aamir’s retirement plan, Kiran gave him the example of 97-year-old actor Clint Eastwood, who is still working.
Aamir quipped, “You guys are giving an extreme example. He is one of the rare people who is in his 90s is still thinking straight.”
Recalling the time when Aamir had almost quit the industry, Kiran said, “Can you imagine him sitting around and not doing any movies and doing nothing? His daughter told him, ‘Please papa, you can’t spend all your time with us, we will go crazy’.”
“I would love a retired life. Reading books, doing yoga,” Aamir had said.
Aamir has been actively working in the film industry for nearly four decades.
After the failure of ‘Laal Singh Chadha’ in 2022, the actor took a break from filmmaking to spend quality time with his family.