Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan has broken silence about his son, actor Junaid Khan's struggle with dyslexia.
The actor chronicled the challenges faced by a young boy with dyslexia named Ishaan, played by Darsheel Safary, in his 2007 directorial debut Taare Zameen Par.
Aamir's comments come days ahead of the release of Sitaare Zameen Par, a spiritual sequel to Taare Zameen Par. The new film puts focus on specially-abled individuals.
According to a Filmfare report, the actor opened up about Junaid's dyslexia struggle at a recent event.
"Maybe this is the first time I'm saying it... The person I'm going to talk about has already spoken about this publicly. So now I can talk about it openly. I'm talking about Junaid - my son Junaid... Junaid is dyslexic," he said.
The script of Taare Zameen Par, penned by Amole Gupte, deeply impacted him, added Aamir.
"I used to scold Junaid. I was like Nandkishore Awasthi in the beginning," he said, in a reference to Ishaan's strict and frustrated father, played by Vipin Sharma.
"I would tell him, 'Junaid, how can someone write so badly? No one can even read this'. 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," Aamir recalled.
Earlier in an interview, Junaid revealed he has dyslexia, which is a learning disorder that affects reading and spelling. The Loveyapa actor said his father and mother, producer Reena Dutta discovered that he had dyslexia while listening to the script of Taare Zameen Par.
"Neither of my parents were particular (about my results)... I was also diagnosed with dyslexia very early on. So, I think they were mindful of that, especially in schooling... When they heard the script of Taare Zameen Par, they were like, 'Ek second... We have seen this in our lives'. And actually, it was at that point that they took me to a specialist, and I was diagnosed with dyslexia," he had said.