Aamir Ali and Sanjeeda Shaikh were asked by Yash Chopra to sit next to him during an award show: “Can you come and sit next to us?”

Aamir Ali recently recalled his success in the television industry. He also said that after he won the third season of the reality dance show Nach Baliye alongside his ex-wife Sanjeeda Shaikh, he was told by the head of the channel that for that one night they were the biggest stars in the country. Following their win, Aamir and Sanjeeda performed at numerous Bollywood award shows, and at one such event they were approached by the iconic filmmaker Yash Chopra.

In an interview with Siddharth Kannan, Aamir recalled, “When we won Nach Baliye, I remember Uday Shankar coming to the finale and saying, ‘Tonight, you’re the biggest stars in the country. Just for one night’. And that year, we were called for all the film awards shows. At Star Screen, they made us sit in the front row. I was sure that we’d be asked to move because Akshay Kumar and Shah Rukh Khan were sitting next to us, and it would be really insulting.” He further added, “Just as I was thinking about this, Yash Chopra came up to us. He said, ‘Son, Pam is a big fan of your work, she loves you. Can you come and sit with us?’ And I thought that was my ticket to save myself from the embarrassment of being asked to get up. We happily agreed to sit with them. That was the phase… I was getting film offers, but I didn’t want to live in uncertainty like I had for two or three years before.”

The actor looking back at his journey recalled that he had difficulty in shifting from television to streaming as he was perceived as a TV star by the filmmakers. This perception of the filmmakers made it difficult for him to be cast in performance-oriented roles. He looked back on how he played lead roles in eight daily soaps across genres, which after a point gave security of a steady paycheque and made him sceptical about relaunching himself in film industry.

“I couldn’t go for a meeting for Kai Po Chebecause I was too busy. I remember Mukesh Chhabra was casting, he kept calling me and I kept delaying it,” he said, expressing how his biggest mistakes in his career was to not have a meeting with casting directors because he was too focused on television.