Imran Khan

Khan won the Best Male Debut at the 54th Filmfare Awards, sharing the award with Farhan Akhtar.

Following Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na, Khan starred in Sanjay Gadhvi's thriller Kidnap, produced by Ashtavinayak head honcho Dhilin Mehta.

He was cast as Kabir Devendra Sharma, a kidnapper who abducts a girl to settle an old score with her father, played by Minissha Lamba and Sanjay Dutt, respectively.

Imran Khan ( born Imran Pal; 13 January 1983) is an American former actor of Indian origin who worked in Hindi films.

He is the nephew of actor Aamir Khan and director-producer Mansoor Khan, and the grandson of director-producer Nasir Hussain.

Imran Khan was born as Imran Pal on 13 January 1983 in Madison, Wisconsin, United States to Anil Pal, a software engineer, and Nuzhat Khan, a psychologist.

Imran's grandfather was a Bengali from Kolkata who married a British woman.

Imran's father is a Bengali Hindu who studied with Mansoor Khan at IIT Bombay and now works as a senior manager at Yahoo in California.

Imran's mother is a Muslim from a film family, daughter of the director-producer Nasir Hussain, sister of director-producer Mansoor Khan and cousin of actor Aamir Khan.

Imran Khan is an American citizen by birth.

Khan's parents divorced when he was still a toddler, after which his mother moved to Mumbai.

In an interview, Khan called his step-father, Raj Zutshi, as the father figure during his growing years.

He was enrolled at Bombay Scottish School.

According to Khan, he developed a stammer, his grades fell and his academic career went into a "strong decline" due to his inability to cope with his new environment and radically changed family situation; he became nervous and developed facial tics.

Meanwhile, his mother married again and found it convenient to send him to a boarding school, choosing Blue Mountain School in distant Coonoor, Tamil Nadu.

After a period of depression in Coonoor, Khan adjusted and grew into the environment; he later described his experience there as "phenomenal," although his grades remained poor.

When the principal of that school left to start his own school, Khan and several other students followed him to a Gurukul in the jungles of Ooty.

The new school had no electricity, the students were required to wash their clothes in a creek and they even grew some of the food they ate.

Khan later admitted that frequently changing schools made him independent but also a loner.

Khan then moved to Sunnyvale, California, where he lived with his father and attended Fremont High School.

Upon graduation, he aspired to become a film director, and went to Los Angeles to pursue a degree in filmmaking at the Los Angeles branch of the New York Film Academy.

Studying direction, writing and cinematography, Khan was inspired by writer Roald Dahl.

After receiving his degree, he ventured into market research and advertising.

He eventually returned to Mumbai and trained at the Kishore Namit Kapoor Acting Institute.

He appeared as a child artist in the films Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) and Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992).

Khan appeared in the films Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) and Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992) as a child artist, both times playing the role of a young Aamir Khan.

Khan made his adult acting debut in 2008 with the romantic comedy Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na, which was a critical and commercial success.

His performance in the film won him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut.

After the failure of his next two films, Khan was written off by the media, calling him a "one-film wonder".

While training at the acting institute, Khan began networking and met writer-director Abbas Tyrewala, who offered him the lead role in Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na (2008).

After producer Jhamu Sugandh experienced financial difficulties they offered the script to Aamir Khan, who agreed to finance the film.

The romantic comedy received positive reviews and was a commercial success, earning inr 830000000 worldwide.

Khan's portrayal of Jai Singh Rathore (Rats)—a boy who does not believe in violence—was praised by critics.

Khalid Mohammed mentioned that "the enterprise belongs to debutant Imran Khan who comes up with an intelligent and restrained performance."

Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN called him "the best young actor" of the time, describing his performance as "unconventional and vulnerable" and stating that it created "a lasting impression."

He then starred in a number of commercially successful comedies or romantic comedies such as I Hate Luv Storys (2010), Delhi Belly (2011), Mere Brother Ki Dulhan (2011) and Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu (2012).

This was followed by a series of box-office flops and a hiatus.

Apart from acting in films, Khan is a social activist, and has written columns for the Hindustan Times.

He is a supporter of PETA, having appeared in events organised for the group.

He has since directed the documentary short film Mission Mars: Keep Walking India (2018).