他常年位居宝莱坞票房排名首位，是身兼演员、编剧、导演、制片、配乐、唱歌等多种才能的“全能王”。如果说《贫民窟的百万富翁》（Slumdog Millionaire）从外国人的视角向印度电影文化致敬，他主演的《三个白痴》（3 Idiots）则是原汁原味的宝莱坞风情和现代题材之间的完美结合，不但刷新了印度票房史，还通过网络传播开来，让全世界见识到这位“印度阿汤哥”的才华与魅力——假期里不妨抽点时间出来看看这部直面印度教育体制的电影，身为学生的你一定会有所感悟！
It's a 1)peculiarity of this job that I'll occasionally interview someone who means nothing to me, yet everything to a crowd of other people. In Aamir Khan's case, we're talking several hundred million people. He's the star of Bollywood's latest 2)blockbuster—actually, he's the star of the two top-3)grossing Bollywood films of all time—but the truth is he only popped up on my personal radar when I dropped into a cinema one day, handed over my credit card, and sat down to watch 3 Idiots.
（记者）这份工作的特别之处在于我偶尔会采访一些自己一无所知、却有很多人为之疯狂的对象。搁阿米尔·汗身上，我们说的可是他那数以千万计的粉丝哦。他出演了宝莱坞的最新卖座电影——事实上，宝莱坞史上票房最高的两部电影都是他主演的。不过直到那天我顺道走进电影院，刷卡买票，然后坐下来看完《三个白痴》后，他才引起了我的兴趣。
It's fascinating that at one point during our conversation, Khan cheerfully gives me a 4)potted 5)rundown of his CV (“I've directed one film, I've produced three films, and as an actor I've done roughly 40 films”). It's hard to imagine Brad Pitt doing a similar thing.
在我们聊天的过程中发生了一件有趣的事情——汗乐呵呵地将自己的简历浓缩扼要地总结给我（“我执导了一部电影，为三部电影担任监制，作为演员出演了大约40部电影”），很难想象布莱德·彼特（在接受采访时）会做出类似的举动。
I'm not unusual in my 6)ignorance. Bollywood has, so far, failed to cross over to a Western audience in any meaningful manner. 3 Idiots has gone some way towards correcting this, with a continuous presence in the UK top 10 during the winter of 2009. “For me the 7)criteria of a film, whether it's Indian or made outside, is the same—I mean, the script has to excite me; the director has to be someone who I trust and have faith in.”
有很多人和我一样，对此一无所知。迄今为止，宝莱坞依然无法将自己的魅力很好地传递给西方观众。不过，《三个白痴》在2009年冬天一直保持在英国票房榜前十名之列，从某种程度上改善了这一窘况。“对我而言，评价一部电影的标准是一样的，无论它是印度电影还是外国电影——我的意思是，剧本要让人兴奋，而导演也必须是我信赖和尊重的人。”
Khan's rise to fame is the stuff of legend. “I'm not a trained actor. I've never been to acting school, so I have no knowledge of the theory of acting. It wasn't that I was a child actor in the acting profession,” he explains. “It was 8)essentially because my uncle Nasir Hussain was a film maker. He was making a film and he said, ‘Why don't you do this part that I have for a kid?' That was a 9)one-off for me. I had nothing to do with films 10)thereafter.”
汗的成名之路可谓传奇。“我不是科班出身，从没上过表演学校，所以我完全没有表演理论知识。我也不是表演专业的童星出身，”他解释道。“只是因为我的伯父纳西尔·侯赛因是个电影制片人，他当时正在拍电影，就对我说：‘我需要一个小孩的角色，不如由你来演吧？’仅此一次，下不为例。此后我并没有涉足电影圈。”
It's at this point that things start to mirror 3 Idiots, a character-led comedy that urges viewers to pursue what they're good at, not what others believe to be good for them. At the age of 16, Khan was asked to work on a film by a high-school classmate (“I was the actor, the assistant director, the production assistant—everything rolled into one”). The experience grabbed him, and in a moment of 11)clarity he realised that he'd found his 12)calling. “My family were dead against it,” he remembers, laughing. “They wanted me to be in a steady profession, like a doctor or an engineer or something. They were protective, but I was very clear about what I wanted, and I 13)stuck to my guns.”
后来，汗的人生故事开始与电影《三个白痴》的剧情有所重叠。这部人物出彩的喜剧劝谕观众以自己的长处为追求目标，而不是别人认为更有好处的东西。16岁那年，汗的高中同学邀请他参与制作一部电影（“我是演员、副导演、副监制——身兼数职”）。这次经历让他着迷。在那一刻，他清楚地意识到自己找到了理想的职业。“我的家人坚决反对，”他笑着回忆道。“他们希望我从事一份稳定的职业，比如医生、工程师之类。他们是出于保护之心，但我非常清楚自己想要什么，坚决不肯让步。”
Leaving his college education behind, he found a job in the local film industry and from there his rise to the top was 14)swift. Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) made him a household name and his “chocolate-boy good looks” (Bollywood's phrase, not ours) 15)prompted Indian women to write him tons of love letters. These days, he's one of the most powerful men in Indian cinema. During his promotion for 3 Idiots, he came up with a 16)ruse that saw him 17)don 18)disguises and disappear into the country, leaving clues for fans to track him down. He admits that the opportunity to interact with people “without them knowing who I am…was something I haven’t experienced in my own country in 20 years.”
大学辍学以后，他在当地一家电影制片厂找了份工作，随后扶摇直上。《冷暖人间》（1988年）让他成为家喻户晓的人物。他那“巧克力男孩般的完美长相”（宝莱坞用语，我们并不通用）让印度女孩给他写了无数情书。如今，他是印度影坛最具影响力的人物之一。在《三个白痴》的宣传活动期间，他计上心头，乔装打扮之后在当地消失了，还留下线索让粉丝去找他。他坦言这种与人们互动“而他们并不知道我是谁的机会……这20年来，我在自己的国家根本无法做到”。
