Aamir Khan's brother Faissal Khan: I was under house arrest for a year

Faissal Khan. Image sourced from mid-day archives

Having forayed into movies in 1994 with Madhosh, Aamir Khan's brother Faissal Khan struggled to find a foothold in the industry. Aamir's attempt at boosting his career with Mela (1999) was met with little success. Since then, Faissal has been seen sporadically in films.

The actor recently made some shocking revelations. He alleged that his family forcefully gave him medicines and kept him under house arrest for one year. Speaking to Bollywood Hungama, the actor said, "When the family felt that I was depressed and had paranoid schizophrenia, they kept me under house arrest for one year and gave me forceful medication. It is illegal but I was taking all this quietly because I thought that the family will realise at some point, that if I am mad, I will show it in some way. I thought I should be patient till they come to their senses that they are troubling me for no reason."

Faissal said that he underwent a mental evaluation at JJ Hospital for 20 days, after which he was declared of sound mind and mentally healthy. "I was given wrong medication for one year, which was very unfair on the family's part," he said.

The actor further revealed that it was after his family asked him to give up his signatory rights, he decided to stand up for himself and moved court.

Faissal has been in news recently when in an interview, he recalled an incident at Aamir's 50th birthday bash, where he claimed that he was insulted by Karan Johar. Khan said, "There is bias and groupism in the industry. The entire world is corrupted so the industry is not as pious. Everyone looks out for themselves. If your work flops, they don't treat you well; they don't even look at you and it has happened to me. On my brother's 50th birthday, I was looked down upon by someone, I don't wish to take the name. But, Karan Johar acted weird with me; he put me down. He insulted me when I was trying to talk to someone and trying to disconnect with the person I was talking to. So, a lot of such things have happened and even I have been through it. This has happened to me. People would refuse to take me in their office. After Mela I thought people will take me in films after seeing my craft, so I used to go to their offices but they would make me sit there. I wouldn't get appointments with a lot of directors, so I have seen that phase also."

Faissal also talked about the ongoing insider-outsider debate and the public anger towards nepotism. The debate has been reignited after the tragic death of Sushant Singh Rajput. "It's not like there are no opportunities for outsiders. In fact, many actors have come from outside - Shah Rukh (Khan), Akshay (Kumar), Ayushmann Khurrana, Rajkummar Rao, and of course, Sushant Singh Rajput. He was not from the industry. So, many actors and actresses have also come from outside," he said.

He further added, "If your father is a big director then he can make a few calls and people to cast you, but you will have to prove your worth in the end. There's no theory or formula for success. There are going to be new people coming in both from the insiders and outsiders. In fact, I think that the rate of insiders flopping is higher than that of the outsiders because you get the chance but you're not successful."

Faissal Khan is now geared up to make a comeback, this time both as an actor and a debutant director with his new film Faactory. A romantic-thriller, Khan is certain that this film will bounce his career back again in the spotlight. The expected release for his film is towards the end of the year. "We are deciding upon an OTT platform where Faactory will receive a worldwide release, and we'll release a trailer very soon."

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