Kiran Rao is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter. She was married to Bollywood actor Aamir Khan until their divorce was announced in 2021. In 2016, Rao co-founded Paani Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to combating Maharashtra’s drought.
Rao began her career as an assistant director in Ashutosh Gowariker’s epic ‘Lagaan’, with whom she later worked on’ Swades: We, the People’. Rao first met her soon-to-be-divorced husband Aamir on the set of ‘Lagaan’, which he also produced and acted in.
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Prior to ‘Lagaan’, she appeared in ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ as a supporting actor in a minor part. She also served as a second assistant director in the indie hit ‘Monsoon Wedding’ with Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Mira Nair.
‘Dhobi Ghat,’ a film she wrote and directed for Aamir Khan Productions, was released in January 2011.
In 2015, the filmmaker was appointed as the chairperson of the Mumbai Film Festival – MAMI.
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Rao is an alumna of the reputed AJK Mass Communication Research Center at Jamis Millia Islamia, New Delhi, and is a descendant of the Rao family of Hyderabad.
Rao’s first cousin is actor Aditi Rao Hydari. J. Rameshwar Rao %u2014 Rao’s paternal grandfather and Hydari’s maternal grandfather %u2014 was the Raja of Wanaparthy, a vast estate under the Nizam of Hyderabad. Wanaparthy is a district in Telangana.
After Khan divorced his first wife Reena Dutta in 2002, Rao married him in December 2005. The couple has a son, Azad Rao Khan, who was born through a surrogate mother and has been named after Abdul Kalam Azad.
