Junaid Khan (Indian actor)


Junaid Khan is an Indian actor who works on stage as well as in Hindi films. A son of actor Aamir Khan, he began his career in various theatre productions and made his lead debut playing Karsandas Mulji in the period drama film Maharaj.

Early life and education

Junaid Khan was born to the Hindi film actor, Aamir Khan, and his first wife, Reena Dutta, in 1993. He has a younger sister, Ira. He has Pashtun-Arab ancestry from his paternal side, and Bengali ancestry from the maternal side.
He studied at the H.R. College of Commerce and Economics in Mumbai and at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.

Career

Theatre

Khan began his acting career on stage, with a role in Quasar Thakore-Padamsee’s adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s play Mother Courage and Her Children in 2017. He then played the lead role of a slave in his sister, Ira's theatre production of Medea, at the Prithvi Theatre in 2019.
In 2024, Khan starred in Faezeh Jalali's tragicomedy play Runaway Brides, as part of the Prithvi Theatre festival. Also at the theatre, he played multiple roles in Shikhandi, based on the character of the same name. In the same year, he played a trans woman in Jalali's play Strictly Unconventional at the National Centre for the Performing Arts. Reviewing the play, Deepa Gahlot found Khan "totally relaxed in his flamboyant outfit and wig".

Films

Khan made his lead acting debut with the leading role of social reformer Karsandas Mulji in the period drama film Maharaj. It is based on the Maharaj Libel Case of 1862, about a priest who sexually assaulted women. Khan prepared for a year to play Mulji, relying on information he found in the public domain, losing around 25 kg of body weight, and learning the dialect in which Mulji spoke. The film was released on Netflix in 2024, following delays due to legal disputes. Shilajit Mitra of The Hindu reviewed that Khan is "sincere and sharp-featured as the striving Karsandas though still miles away from emerging a captivating leading man: he is especially dull in the courtroom scenes".
In 2025, Khan had his first theatrical release opposite Khushi Kapoor in the romantic comedy Loveyapa, a remake of the Tamil film Love Today. It tells the story of an engaged couple who switch phones before their marriage; Khan admitted to feeling miscast in the role as he found his character’s personality vastly different from his own. Titas Chowdhury of News18 took note of Khan's comic timing, which he did not have an opportunity to display in Maharaj. Conversely, Rediff.com's Sukanya Verma dismissed his "acting method akin to someone wringing out water from a towel" and criticised his chemistry with Kapoor. It emerged as a box-office bomb.
Khan will next star with Sai Pallavi in the Sapporo-set film Mere Raho, produced by his father.

Filmography

Theatre

Mother Courage and Her Children Medea Runaway Brides Shikhandi
  • ''Strictly Unconventional''