Aamir Khan

Zainab Salbi: Hello everyone. I'm Zainab Salbi and I have the great honor to be on stage with the India's biggest movie star, Aamir Khan. Thank you. I mean, we are talking beyond the actions movies of James Bond and Daniel Craig. We are talking beyond the romances of Richard Gere.

We are talking beyond the charms of George Clooney. We are talking, ladies and gentlemen above and beyond all of that, a man who has been acting since the age of nine, who has conquered the hearts of 600 million, yes, 600 million Indians.

This is half of the Indian population. This man has done it. Unbelievable. And in 2012, he surprises India, he surprises the world with launching a new TV talk show, Satyamev Jayate.

Jayate. That tackles social issues, taboos, heads on. I mean, you just put yourself out there. What inspired you to do that?

Aamir Khan: Well, a very good evening to everyone here. I think, it started somewhere when I was a very small child, and it began with my mother, I think.

My mother's been a big influence on me, and I'll narrate an incident of my life which stayed with me all along, and that's, I used to play a lot of tennis when I was a kid, and competitive tennis, you know, state level, national level.

And I was pretty good at that time, and she knew how anxious I was about the game, how much I loved the game, and every time I had a match, she'd be waiting for me to come home, and when I would come home, she'd ask me, "Did you win? Did you lose?" usually I would win, so my answer would be, "I won."

And then after about five minutes, the first time she did it really shook me. After about five minutes, she would come and say to me, "You know, the boy who lost to you today, he would have reached home about now, and his mom would have asked him the same question, and he would have said he lost. So his mother must be feeling really bad right now."

And the first time she said that to me, it, like, really hit me. I mean, her ability to think for another, a woman she's never seen, never met, really, hit home to me. And I don't think she was meaning to tell me or teach me anything, that's just how she is.

And I think a lot of what I am is a result of her. I think the second person who's had, been a big influence on me is my friend Satyajit Bhatkal, who happens to be the director of the show. Satyajit and I were in school together.

He was a topper in the class. I was the backbencher. And he was brilliant, so he had the world at his feet.

He could do what he wanted. But after we passed out, he decided to work for other people. So he didn't become an engineer or a doctor or a chartered accountant, which he could have been, or an MBA, whatever he wanted.