taare zameen par taare zameen par taare zameen par (lit. 'stars on ground'), also known as like stars on earth in english, is a 2007 indian hindi-language drama film produced and directed by aamir khan. the film stars khan himself, along with darsheel safary, tanay chheda, vipin sharma and tisca chopra. the film explores the life and imagination of ishaan (safary), a 9-year-old boy who, despite excelling in art, has poor academic performance which leads his parents to send him to a boarding school, where a new art teacher nikumbh (khan) suspects that he is dyslexic and helps him to overcome his reading disorder. taare zameen partheatrical release posterdirected byaamir khanwritten byamole gupteproduced byaamir khanstarringdarsheel safaryaamir khantisca chopravipin sharmatanay chhedacinematographysatyajit pande (setu)edited bydeepa bhatiamusic byshankar–ehsaan–loyproductioncompanyaamir khan productionsdistributed bypvr picturesrelease date 21 december 2007 (2007-12-21) running time164 minutescountryindialanguagehindibudget₹120 millionbox office₹1.35 billion creative director and writer amole gupte initially developed the idea with his wife deepa bhatia, who served as the film's editor. shankar–ehsaan–loy composed the film's score, and prasoon joshi wrote the lyrics for many of the songs. principal photography took place in mumbai and in panchgani's new era high school and some of the school's students make appearances. taare zameen par made its theatrical debut in india on 21 december 2007, earning ₹1.35 billion worldwide, thus proving to be a commercial success. it received widespread critical acclaim, with praise for its novel story, screenplay, direction, dialogues, soundtrack and performances of the cast. the film also proved to be vital in raising awareness about dyslexia. a recipient of several accolades, taare zameen par was india's official entry at the 81st academy awards for best foreign film, but did not proceed further. at the 55th national film awards, it won 3 awards – best film on family welfare, best lyrics (prasoon joshi for "maa") and best male playback singer (shankar mahadevan for "maa"). at the 53rd filmfare awards, it received a leading 11 nominations, including best actor (safary), best supporting actor (aamir khan) and best supporting actress (chopra), and won a leading 5 awards, including best film, best director (aamir khan) and best lyricist (joshi for "maa"). utv home entertainment released a dvd for indian audiences in 2008. disney's later release of the international edition dvd marked the first purchase of distribution rights for an indian film by a global company. plot ishaan awasthi is an 8-year-old boy who has trouble following school, though he is assumed by all to hate learning, and is belittled for it. his imagination, creativity, and talent for art and painting are often disregarded. his father, nandkishore is a successful executive who expects his sons to excel, and his mother, maya is a homemaker who is frustrated by her inability to educate ishaan. ishaan's elder brother, yohan is an exemplary student in whose shadow ishaan remains. one day, ishaan and his parents are called by ishaan's principal to discuss his failures in class. fed up of hearing ishaan's failures and lack of improvement, nandkishore sends ishaan to a boarding school. alone there, he rapidly sinks into a state of fear, anxiety, and depression, which is only worsened by the teachers there and their strict and abusive regime. his only friend is rajan damodaran, a physically disabled boy who is one of the top students and resides with his family there, as his father is part of the school's board. ishaan contemplates suicide one day, but rajan prevents him. ram shankar nikumbh, a cheerful and optimistic instructor at the tulips school for young children with developmental disabilities, joins the boarding school's faculty the same day, replacing the authoritarian mr. holkar, the school's former art teacher. ram's teaching style is markedly different from that of holkar's, and he quickly notes ishaan's unhappiness that day after he fails to draw anything during the class. he reviews ishaan's work and concludes that his academic shortcomings are indicative of dyslexia. ram then visits the awasthi's house in mumbai, where he is surprised to discover ishaan's hidden interest in art. flustered, he demonstrates to maya and yohan how ishaan has extreme difficulty in understanding letters and words due to dyslexia, and his poverty in sports skills stems from his poor motor ability (which also applies to his difficulty in tying shoelaces). nandkishore labels it as an intellectual disability (as well as excuse) and dismisses it as laziness much to ram's frustration. back at school, ram brings up the topic of dyslexia in a class by offering a list of famous dyslexic people. he comforts ishaan, telling him how he struggled as a child as well. ram obtains the principal's permission to become ishaan's tutor. with gradual care, he works to improve ishaan's reading and writing by using remedial techniques developed by dyslexia specialists. eventually, both ishaan's demeanor and his grades improve. one day nandkishore visits the school and tells ram that he and maya have read up on dyslexia and understand the condition. ram mentions that what ishaan needs more than understanding is that someone loves him. outside nandkishore sees ishaan reading from a board. with teary eyes, he is unable to face his son and walks away. at the end of the school year, ram organises an arts and crafts contest for the staff and students, judged by artist lalita lajmi. ishaan's work makes him the winner and ram, who paints ishaan's portrait, is declared the runner-up. the principal announces that ram has been hired as the school's permanent art teacher. when ishaan's parents meet his teachers on the last day of school, they are left speechless by the transformation in him. overcome with emotion, nandkishore thanks ram. before leaving, ishaan runs toward ram, who lifts him high up in a hug. cast darsheel safary's initial screentest lacked dialogue. when aamir khan saw the expression in his nose and face, however, he instantly knew, "that's the child. he is ishaan." tisca chopra, lead actress, addressing at the press conference, during the 39th international film festival (iffi-2008) in panaji, goa darsheel safary as ishaan nandkishore awasthi (inu): maya & nandkishore's son veer mohan as little ishaan aamir khan as ram shankar nikumbh: an art teacher at new era high school and inu's tutor, tuition teacher tisca chopra as maya awasthi: ishaan and yohaan's mother vipin sharma as nandkishore awasthi, ishaan and yohaan's father tanay chheda as rajan damodran, inu's best friend and classmate at boarding school sachet engineer as yohaan nandkishore awasthi: inu's brother aniket engineer as junior yohaan ramit gupta as ranjeet girija oak as jabeen khan: nikumbh's co-worker bugs bhargava and shankar sachdev as sen sir and tiwari sir, two teachers at new era high school m. k. raina as principal - boarding school: the head of new era high school pratima kulkarni as principal - st. anthony's school meghna malik as victoria teacher: class and math teacher of ishaan's former school, st. anthony's school sonali sachdev as irene teacher: an english teacher at ishaan's former school, st. anthony's school lalita lajmi as herself (cameo appearance) abhishek bachchan as himself (cameo appearance in photograph) production development the husband and wife team of amole gupte and deepa bhatia developed the story that would eventually become taare zameen par as a way of understanding why some children cannot conform to a conventional educational system. their initial work began as a short story that evolved into a screenplay over seven years. deepa bhatia stated in an interview with the hindu that her original inspiration was the childhood of japanese filmmaker akira kurosawa, who did poorly in school. her goal was to explore the story of "a child who did not fit into the school stream." she referenced a specific moment in kurosawa's biography where he began to excel after meeting an attentive art teacher, and noted that this scene "became the inspiration for how a teacher could transform the life of a student". while developing the character of a young boy based on kurosawa, bhatia and gupte explored some possible reasons why he failed in school. their research led them to the maharashtra dyslexia association and parents for a better curriculum for the child (pace). dyslexia eventually became the central topic and theme of the film. the pair worked with dyslexic children to research and develop the screenplay, basing characters and situations on their observations. bhatia and gupte carefully concealed the children's identities in the final version of the script. "while amole has written what i think is a brilliant and moving script, his contribution towards the film is not limited to that of a writer. the entire pre-production was done by him including the most important task of creating the music ... he has been present on set throughout the shooting as the creative director, and has been a big support and strong guiding force in my debut as a director. i thank him for that, and more so for having the faith in me by entrusting to me something that is so close to him." — aamir khan khan and gupte first met in college. khan has said that he admired gupte's abilities as an actor, writer, and painter. three years before the film's release, gupte brought khan to the project as a producer and actor. gupte himself was to direct, but the first week's dailies were a great disappointment to khan, who "lost faith in amole and his capability of translating on screen what he had so beautifully written on paper". khan was on the verge of withdrawing his participation in the film because of these "creative differences", but gupte kept him on board by stepping down as director. contrary to khan's claim, gupte lashed out saying that after the wrap-up party, khan announced that he was the director of the film, despite gupte acting as director. had it been necessary to hire a third party, production would have been postponed for 6–8 months as the new director prepared for the film. keen to keep safary as ishaan—the actor might have aged too much for the part had production been delayed—khan took over the role of director. taare zameen par was khan's first experience in the dual role of actor and director. he has admitted that the transition was challenging, stating that while he had always wanted to direct a film, it was unknown territory for him. gupte remained on set, "guiding and, at times, even correcting ". title and translation initially, the film was to retain the short story's title of "high jump", which referenced ishaan's inability to achieve the high jump in gym class. this subplot, which was filmed but later cut, would have tied into the original ending for the movie. in this planned ending, a "ghost image" separates from ishaan after the art competition and runs to the sports field; the film would end on a freeze frame of ishaan's "ghost image" successfully making the leap. aamir khan disliked this proposed ending and convinced gupte to rewrite it. with the working title no longer relevant, khan, gupte, and bhatia discussed several alternatives, eventually deciding on taare zameen par. possible translations of this title include stars on the ground and like stars on earth. according to khan: taare zameen par is a film about children and it is a film which celebrates the abilities of children. taare zameen par is a title which denotes that aspect. it is a title with a very positive feel to it. all the kids are special and wonderful. they are like stars on earth. this particular aspect gave birth to the title. filming principal photography for the film took place in india over five months. khan spent his first two days as director blocking the first scene to be filmed—ishaan returning home from school and putting away his recently collected fish—and becoming comfortable with his new responsibilities. believing that the audience should not be aware of the camera, he chose a simple shooting style for the film that involved relatively little camera movement. at the same time, khan also made use of illusory camera tricks. for example, the opening scene of ishaan collecting fish outside his school was shot on location and at film city. shots focusing on ishaan took place at the former, while those involving the gutter terrarium were filmed at a water tank at the latter. the