Is Aamir Khan acting as Nadeem?

Aamir Khan has gone on record to confess that he was reluctant to play music director Shakti Kumar in Secret Superstar. Well, it can now be told that the character is based on 1990s superstar composer Nadeem Saifi, who together with his partner Shravan Rathod, changed the profile of film tracks throughout the decade.

A source in the know says, “When the role of the on-the-roll music director Shakti Kumar in Secret Superstar was written, it was definitely Nadeem Saifi who was the role model. It’s the role of a super-successful music director, who is a big flirt. Aamir was, in fact, shy of playing someone so flamboyant and slightly cheesy. But once he agreed to do it, he went the whole hog with the Nadeem inspired get-up, including the goatee.”

It remains to be seen how Nadeem will react to one of India’s most accomplished superstars playing him on screen.