Meena Iyer (DNA; May 21, 2019)

Imran Khan-Avantika Malik’s marriage was one of those fairy-tale weddings that got everyone to believe in the happily ever-after concept. Both Mumbai-based youngsters had dated each other for eight years before taking their relationship to the next level. The birth of their daughter, Imara, on June 9, 2014, was the high point of their lives. Imran, who was a hands-on father, had said that he had got used to ‘sanitising’ his hands several times over because he was extra careful around his baby girl. He had also told us that Imara was the best gift that Avantika had given him. In other words, this couple felt blessed after their little one was born. They often posted pictures of themselves and their child on social media. And, all photographs indicated that they were happy.

However, strong rumours now suggest that eight years after tying the knot, Imran and Avantika have called for some time off in their marriage reportedly due to irreconcilable differences. An insider says, “Avantika allegedly left 24, Pali Hill, Imran’s residence, a while ago with Imara. It is being said that she is currently staying with her family.”

Only time will tell if this is a temporary situation or if there is something more to it. As of now, family and friends are apparently trying to see how things can be worked out in favour of Imran and Avantika.

We texted the Katti Batti actor asking him whether he and Avantika had decided to separate, but he hadn’t replied till the time of going to press.

Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 31, 2018)

Mansoor Khan was surrounded by his extended family at his expansive farm house in Coonoor recently. The merry bunch included his actor-cousin Aamir Khan with wife Kiran Rao, kids Junaid, Ira and Azad Rao Khan, and mother Zeenat Hussain, and nephew Imran Khan with wife Avantika and daughter Imara.

The extended family had travelled to the hill station, which offered some much-needed respite from Mumbai’s sweltering heat, to bring in the Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak and Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar filmmaker’s 60th birthday on Tuesday.

Mansoor cut a cake and proudly flaunted his birthday boy badge, while the group feasted on homecooked food to celebrate the occasion. After a leisurely meal, the family soaked up the mild sun as they lounged around the farm. Kiran unveiled a cropped hairdo and exclaimed, ‘Embracing the greys,’ while Azad utilised the time to acquaint himself with the farm cat.

“It was a double celebration as they had also rung in friend Danish Hussain’s birthday with a chocolate cake and gathered in the garden for a spot of football earlier in the week. It was the perfect, low-key getaway to unwind, away from the hustle and bustle of the city,” informs a source.

Coincidentally, 2018 also marks 30 years of Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Mansoor’s directorial debut, which had opened on 29 April, 1988, while Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar completed 26 years on May 22.

Imran Khan dishes about love and life
Upala KBR (DNA; August 2, 2016)


Beyonce or Rihanna?
Equally uninterested in both.

Flirty or intense romance?
After 14 years of being with this one woman (his wife Avantika), how can you ask me this question? Intense, of course. I started dating her when I was a teenager, since I was 19 and when we didn’t have cell phones. I don’t even know about any other woman.

What’s your pet peeve?
I get irritated with people who are on the phone all the time — you can hear the tick-tick or tapping of the keys when they are chatting or eating with you.

A quality that draws you to a woman?
If she can make me laugh. By that, I don’t mean sense of humour. Women are not encouraged to be funny. With men, it’s a big thing and to be humourous is thought of as a desirable thing. So women often won’t crack jokes. I find that to be rare and it requires a degree of wit, awareness and intelligence to be witty. I find humour in a woman very attractive.

A quality in a woman that puts you off?
Wilful ignorance. We are at a place right now. It’s weird when you tell people something, they will say ‘Don’t pakao, I don’t need to know the reason,’ as everything for them is on a superficial level. But I am like, why not? Particularly, if it pertains to you or your life. So when someone tells me, ‘Why do you worry about these things, Imran? How does it matter?” I am like — don’t use it then!

Live-in relationships are…
I think it’s a very valuable way of getting to know someone. Avantika and I lived together in the USA since we were 21. We moved back to India at 22 and continued to live together here, so we spent many years together before getting married.

One mantra you live by…
People worry and stress about things they can’t control, I can’t. As much as you worry, you can’t impact or affect anything.

One professional mistake that you will never make…
I am guilty of making this mistake in the past, which is that you do a film for a dishonest reason. It can be anything — emotions, money or the greed for stardom. Your reasons are not honest for that film and that’s wrong. You should do it for the reason that excites you, but I have chosen to do films for these reasons and invariably it has come back to bite me in the ass.

A quality you wish you had...
I wish I was more outgoing. I’m not good with small talk. I can’t do it. I suspect that a lot of people who meet me for the first time think of me as rude or standoffish. I wish I had this ability to relate and connect to people. Some people are so warm, but I can open up only after meeting someone many times. People’s ability to effortlessly charm and make friends with others is something that I am envious about.

Three things you wish you had…
I have got more from life than I could ever wish for. I’m extremely aware of how fortunate I am because of the blessed life I have, so then to say, ‘Kaash ye hota...’ is being ungrateful.

Three people you rely on/trust completely and why…
Avantika is No 1 in that list, my mother Nuzhat and the third person is open, depending on the scenario like a friend. My mom and wife are there first.

A moment you want to relive...
I would much like to relive the first day that Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na released. It was a 10 am show at Cinemax (now PVR) and we had gone there to check out the audience’s reaction. I snuck in and was standing at the staircase where I could hear the film, but not see it. Towards the end of the movie, when Sushant’s character starts hitting me and I fall down, the audience oohed and aahed as if they were part of it. When I hit him and he fell, they collectively gasped. It was the first great experience I had of an audience reacting to my work. It was unbiased and neutral as they had bought their tickets and was liking my work.

That feeling is absolutely undescribable — I felt like I had floated up above the ground. I felt like a drug was injected directly into my heart and some magic potion was running into my bloodstreams. It’s the greatest drug ever — the drug of the audience loving your work is unparalled. Koi daru ya cocaine — none of that can ever compare to this feeling! Of an audience honestly reacting to your work and cheering you. It’s a high that every actor chases.

A day in your life…
Wake up with my baby, play with her for a couple of hours, from 11 am to lunchtime meeting, script sessions and work appointments, I go and pick up my daughter from school, 4 pm onwards is work again. I have slots in the day when things happen. I go to gym in the evening, after that ideally I like to be free as I like to spend time with Imara for the last couple of hours before she goes to sleep but some people are late hosts so they expect you to meet them later. I am early-to-bed early and early-to-rise person so as far as possible, I try to get my meetings done earlier in the day.

Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 4, 2016)


Imran Khan, who flew to the US to be a part of a panel discussion on the LGBT community after ringing in his 33rd birthday in Goa in January, is making the most of his trip. "If these guys saw my school report cards, they'd kick me off campus immediately," he quipped, tongue-in-cheek, following up the discussion with a reunion over pizza in Boston with an old friend.

After attending the two-day conference, he proceeded to meet his dad in Los Angeles, returning to the City of Angels after almost a decade. "He also visited the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, West Hollywood and Capitol Records. His wife, Avantika, their daughter Imara and brother-in-law Vedant Malik joined him last week," informed a source close to the actor. The trio visited Sky Zone, the indoor trampoline park, which Imran has been wanting to try it ever since he first saw The Matrix.

The doting dad took his daughter to the popular tourist hotspot, Universal Studios, believing it was a perfect recipe for an amazing day. But the lil' one was disappointed because she didn't get to see the Minions in the park. Katti!

However, he made it batti by getting his daughter's footprints tattooed on his chest. The Khans return to the Bay next week.

Imran Khan, who turned 33 on January 13, talks about his last release, a vacation in Goa and a talk in Harvard
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 15, 2016)

For Imran Khan, who turned 33 on January 13, it was a quiet birthday with wife Avantika and daughter Imara at their Bandra residence. "I dropped my daughter off to school and picked her up, followed by regular ghar ka khana. A few friends came by in the evening," says the actor, adding that celebrations will kick off in Goa this weekend with family and friends. "It's one of Imara's favourite destinations. I remember how much she loved it when I took her to the beach once."

The actor will leave for the US after returning from Goa to be part of a panel discussion on the LGBT community at the Harvard University. He will leave 10 days early so he can spend time with his dad and friends. Meanwhile, Imran is reading scripts. "I have shared ideas on them with the directors and we'll go ahead if something clicks. The story has to be interesting," he points out.

Imran is quick to add that he'd never agreed to be a part of Aanand L Rai's Hindi remake of RS Prasanna's Tamil hit, Kalyana Samayal Saadham, which now features Kartik Aaryan and Shruti Haasan. "I was offered the part in early 2014. I had seen the original and liked it but since it was being made in Hindi, the setting had to be changed. I asked them to come back with a Hindi script. That never happened. They simply announced that I was doing the film with Shruti (Haasan). I opted out of it in mid-2015," he explains.

Ask him about his last screen outing, Katti Batti, which didn't do too well and Imran says that it got him more respect and credibility as an actor than any other film he's done. "People went to watch it thinking it was a Kangana Ranaut film, but came out praising my performance. For me, it was a win-win situation. I have no control over the box office, I really liked the film," he says.

Upala KBR (DNA; September 14, 2015)


Imran tells us, “I will be travelling with my oldest friend, Sahil, whom I have known since I was four and Basti, who stays in Munich (Germany). We will hire a car and drive from Germany and maybe cross over to Austria.”

Last year, the actor had gone to Germany with his wife Avantika when she was expecting their daughter Imara. She won’t be accompanying him this time around. Says Imran, “I’ll be gone for 15 days. Avantika won’t be travelling with me, this time around as it’s a boys-only trip. We might rough it up a bit while travelling,” he laughs.

Won’t he miss Avantika and daughter Imaara? “Of course! I will miss them tremendously but my wife has her own plans with her girlfriends. My mom (Nuzhat) will be taking care of Imaara. This is not the first time that I am being separated from my daughter. The longest time I have been away from her is when she was 12 weeks old and I was in Ahmedabad for a month on an outdoor for Katti Batti. At the time, Avantika and I would FaceTime with Imara. This time, too, I shall be FaceTiming with Imara.”

Meena Iyer (BOMBAY TIMES; June 16, 2014)

Imran Khan's bundle of joy is six-days old. And the actor's already obsessing about his little girl. Avantika and he have named the child Imara Malik Khan. “It is Swahili and it means strong and resolute,“ explains the light-eyed actor, adding, “It's a dumdaar name.“

Recalling the moment he first set eyes on his baby , he says, “Friends and family tell you that when you become a parent your world changes. It is one of those things that people keep telling you about, but until you hold the baby in your arms, you are never really prepared for it." He adds, “The last phase of Avantika's pregnancy was very hard for her. She is petite. With the baby growing inside her, she would get breathless sometimes; there were acidity and other issues as well. Physically, she was quite uncomfortable in the last couple of months. This phase was a little tricky, a little hard. However our world changed on June 9. The baby was born at 9.14 am on a Monday morning and when they handed her over to me at 9.15, a switch went off in my head. It is clichéd, but my world has changed."

He tells us how his family made the hospital a Mad Hatter's zone on that day. Imran says, “Mansoor mamu is not here, but Aamir mamu and Kiran came to the hospital. My family is nuts. We had booked an extra room for the family, right next to Avantika and the baby, but we fell short of space because 10 members arrived together. Before long we had to request the hospital for one more room to accommodate our relatives. And there was a nice family outing happening with everyone ordering French fries, cheese toast and nimbu-paani.
Hospital rules allow only two persons to visit the patient at a time. So people took turns to see the baby and meet my wife. They would then go back to the next room and stay put. It was a nice family outing."

The actor is also an expert at changing diapers. No, he hadn't enrolled in any classes, but he has hands-on experience of changing nappies and bottle-feeding Mansoor and Aamir's kids while he was growing up. “All this is coming in handy," he laughs. Of course, in the case of Imara, everything he does is magnified because he is obsessed with his new-born. The baby room is manned by a camera, which is accessible from anywhere in the world.

“Wherever I am, whatever I am doing, I can access her room on my phone,'' says he, showing us the cot where she sleeps. He even points out a slight resemblance that she bears to Aamir's son Azad and to himself. “If I had had a boy I would have some semblance of dignity. But since it's a girl, I will be on my knees for the rest of my life. My daughter can twist me around her little finger," he adds.

When we point out the skin that has peeled on his hands, Imran says, “I have bought a 24-pack of hand sanitizers. I have sanitized my hands 30 times in a record of 24 hours. Each time I go up to my baby, I want to ensure my hands are clean. That's how my skin has started to peel. My mother has now warned me to go easy on that stuff, so today I have only used the sanitizer twice.'' A huge pink cake arrives from Sonam Kapoor with whom Imara shares her birthday. And when he picks up the phone to thank his I Hate Luv Storys co-actor for the indulgence, one cannot help but smile.

Father's Day truly has a new significance for Imran this year.