Junaid Khan interview: ‘I come from immense privilege, cannot pretend otherwise’

The newcomer talks about his cinematic debut ‘Maharaj’, his learnings from theatre school and being Aamir Khan’s son

Junaid Khan, son of Aamir Khan, made a quiet cinematic debut last month with Maharaj, a period film that, despite its royal title, witnessed little pageantry or fanfare. Directed by Siddharth P Malhotra, the film has 31-year-old Junaid essaying the role of Karsandas Mulji, a 19th-Century social reformer and journalist embroiled in a libel suit with a powerful godman. The film was dragged to court too, after members of a religious sect filed a petition claiming it could hurt sentiments and incite violence: it was cleared for streaming by the Gujarat High Court on June 27.

“When the film’s release was pushed we were all a bit on edge,” Junaid admits. “I am thankful to the judiciary for seeing the film for what it is and allowing it to be released.” Indeed, Maharaj — which was certified by the CBFC in 2023 — courted little post-release trouble, the right-wing uproar on social media having comfortably died down following the HC ruling. It was a fate unlike, say, that of Laal Singh Chadha, featuring Junaid’s father, who was the target of a vicious boycott campaign in 2022, or Annapoorani, which waded into controversy earlier this year for allegedly hurting religious sentiments and was pulled from Netflix.

The acceptance of Maharaj by the wider public has been heartening, Junaid says. “This is a sensitively made film about a topic that is close to a lot of people. Siddharth sir, our director, handled the subject quite responsibly. Our intention was never to hurt people. That way we could never get our message across.”

Reviews for Maharaj were largely unenthused, much of the criticism aimed at its conventional screenplay and tepid character arcs, though Jaideep Ahlawat won praise for his finely calibrated performance as the film’s antagonist, Maharaj Jadunathjee. One crackling scene, for instance, has hero and villain mouthing off at each other in the pouring rain, a melodramatic moment that would slot into the high-fevered commercial cinema of the 1970s.

“We shot that scene for three consecutive nights, spending 12 hours at a stretch in the rain,” Junaid shares. “I did not expect the toll that it would take. The whole atmosphere of the scene is very heightened. Reality cannot be a barometer for it. It had to be graphed meticulously, and Jaideep sir had a spectacular understanding of how to play it.”

In the film, Karsandas, Junaid’s character, is galvanised in his crusade against Jadunathjee after his fiancee dies by suicide. Kishori (Shalini Pandey) thus becomes a disposable adjunct to advance the hero’s journey. It is a distressing story point in the film, although, as Junaid suggests, it may have some grounding in historical fact.

“The film takes place in the 1860s and we have to see it in the socio-cultural context it is set in. From my understanding, the real Karsandas did have a fiancee who died by suicide. He was married again and his second wife also died in an accident. In fact, the character played by Sharvari Wagh, Viraj, was his third wife.”