Like Stars on Earth (2007) Taare Zameen Par (original title)

Director:

Aamir Khan
(more)

Writers:

Amole Gupte (dialogue & screenplay)
Amole Gupte (story)

Release Date:

21 December 2007 (Canada)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Every Child is Special

Plot:

An eight year old boy is thought to be lazy and a troublemaker, until the new art teacher has the patience and compassion to discover the real problem behind his struggles in school.

Plot Keywords:

School | Teacher | Boarding School | Art Teacher | Dream

Awards:

13 wins & 15 nominations

Cast

Darsheel Safary	...	Ishaan Awasthi
Aamir Khan	...	Ram Shankar Nikumbh
Tanay Chheda	...	Rajan Damodaran
Sachet Engineer	...	Yohan Awasthi
Tisca Chopra	...	Maya Awasthi
Vipin Sharma	...	Nandkishore Awasthi
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ayaan	...	Ishaan Awasthi - 10 months
Abhishek Bachchan	...	Himself
Megha Bengali	...	Mrs. Karnik
Bugs Bhargava	...	Sen Sir
Alorika Chatterjee	...	Science Teacher
Gurkirtan Chauhan	...	Housemaster
Sanjay Dadich	...	Maadhoo
Madhav Datt	...	Loo Bully
Aniket Engineer	...	Young Yohan Awasthi
Krishn Gopinath	...	Satyajit Bhatkar
Munireh Guhilot	...	Dorm Parent
Ramit Gupta	...	Ranjeet
Raaj Gopal Iyer	...	George Sir
Jadav	...	Musician at Mela
Gurdeepak Kaur	...	Housemaster's Wife
Ravi Khanvilkar	...	Mr. Holkar (as Ravi Khanwelkar)
Pratima Kulkarni	...	Principal - St. Anthony's School
Lalitha Lajmi	...	Herself - Art Mela's Chief Guest
Brihan Lamba	...	Arun Poddar
Meghna Malik	...	Victoria Teacher
Girish Kumar Menon	...	Rajan's Father
Veer Mohan	...	Ishaan Awasthi - 2 yrs.
Girija Oak	...	Jabeen - Amir's Co-worker
Prashant	...	Musician at Mela
M.K. Raina	...	Principal - Boarding School
Ricky	...	Munoo Patel
Shankar Sachdev	...	Tiwari Sir
Sonali Sachdev	...	Irene Teacher
Sanjay Sinha
Arnav Valcha	...	Kabir Johar
Vitthal	...	Musician at Mela
Vivekanandan	...	Telephone Operator

Directed by
Aamir Khan
Amole Gupte		(uncredited)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Amole Gupte		dialogue & screenplay
Amole Gupte		story

Produced by
Ajay Bijli	....	co-producer
Sanjeev K. Bijli	....	co-producer
Aamir Khan	....	producer
Sunitha Ram	....	line producer
B. Shrinivas Rao	....	executive producer
Kiran Rao	....	associate producer
Manoj Shroff	....	line producer: "Bheja Kum" shooting unit

Original Music by
Shankar Mahadevan		(as Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy)
Loy Mendonsa		(as Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy)
Ehsaan Noorani		(as Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy)

Cinematography by
Satyajit Pande		(as Setu)

Film Editing by
Deepa Bhatia

Production Design by
Shruti Gupte

Costume Design by
Priyanjali Lahiri

Makeup Department
Avan Contractor	....	hair
Joginder G. Gupta	....	make up (as Joginder Gupta)
Kamlesh	....	assistant makeup artist
Luize Joyce Margaret	....	hair dresser

Production Management
Gopal Bhasin	....	assistant production manager
Advait Chandan	....	assistant production manager
Devraj Panda	....	post-production manager (as Fevraj 'Sunil' Panda)
Rama Rao	....	unit production manager
Mahesh Tawde	....	production manager: "Bheja Kum" shooting unit

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Nazneen Bhatia	....	third assistant director
Ram Madhvani	....	director (song "Bheja Kum")
Tanmay Mohan	....	second assistant director
Sunil Pandey	....	first assistant director
Shikha Rahi	....	third assistant director
Akshay Roy	....	first assistant director: "Bheja Kum" unit

Art Department
Aindra Chakraborty	....	caricature artist
Sunil Gujar	....	graphic designer
Ramakant Kanojia	....	graphic designer
Munira Khokhawala	....	assistant art director
Veer Nanavati	....	assistant art director
Mihir Shah	....	graphic designer
Dhananjay Thorat	....	graphic designer
Sumit Vashisth	....	graphic designer

Sound Department
Ayush Ahuja	....	sound effects editor
Tarun Bhandari	....	sound recordist
Sanjay Chaturvedi	....	second boom operator (as Sanjay Kumar Chaturvedi)
Sanjay Chaturvedi	....	sound editor
Subir Kumar Das	....	associate rerecording mixer: Anand Recording Studios
Subir Kumar Das	....	effects premix engineer: Anand Recording Studios
Anup Dev	....	final mixing engineer: Anand Recording Studio
Jayant Haldar	....	assistant mix engineer
Nakul Kamte	....	sound designer
Ashraf Khan	....	boom operator
Krishnanunni N.R.	....	adr mixer

Visual Effects by
Paresh Acharya	....	senior digital intermediate producer: Prime Focus
Vishal Anand	....	technical director
Vishal Anand	....	technical supervisor: Tata Elxsi VCL
Jayant Attarde	....	system support: Tata Elxsi VCL
Husseini Barodawalla	....	computer graphics lead: Tata Elxsi VCL (as Huseini Barodawala)
Vijay Bharadwaj	....	computer graphics artist: Tata Elxsi VCL
Sherry Bharda	....	visual effects: Tata Elxsi VCL
Anisha Bhatia	....	line producer: Prime Focus
Sean Bhiladvala	....	computer graphics artist: Tata Elxsi VCL
Rajib Biswas	....	digital intermediate line producer: Prime Focus
Parminder Singh Chadda	....	digital intermediate supervisor: Prime Focus
Arup Chakravarty	....	recording technician: Prime Focus
Piyush Chaudhary	....	assistant fire artist: Prime Focus (as Piyush Chowdhery)
Prince Chaurasia	....	assistant line producer: Prime Focus
Kushnum Chinoy	....	compositor: Tata Elxsi VCL (as Khushnum Chinoy)
Vinay Singh Chuphal	....	flame compositor: Tata Elxsi VCL (as Vinay Chuphal)
Tuhin Kumar Das	....	computer graphics artist: Tata Elxsi VCL
Deepal Dass	....	compositing lead: Tata Elxsi VCL
Brownil Dcunah	....	senior fire artist: Prime Focus (as Brownil D'cunha)
Debo	....	visual effects producer: Tata Elxsi VCL
Rohan Desai	....	digital intermediate supervisor: Prime Focus
Shaiju Ep	....	digital compositor
Nirmal Gala	....	project manager: Prime Focus
Rohan Gala	....	digital intermediate line producer
Rahul Galwankar	....	lead rotoscope artist
Bhaskar Joyoti Goswami	....	compositor: Tata Elxsi VCL
Ranganath Gowda	....	data management: Prime Focus
Neha Gupta	....	assistant visual effects producer: Tata Elxsi VCL
Vijay Gupta	....	computer graphics artist: Tata Elxsi VCL
Ashirwad Hadkar	....	digital intermediate colorist (as Aashirwad Hadkar)
Xavier Joseph	....	senior fire artist: Prime Focus
Rohini Joshi	....	flame compositor: Tata Elxsi VCL (as Rohini Ajit Joshi)
Rahul Juneja	....	assistant fire artist: Prime Focus
T. Kannan	....	flame compositor: Tata Elxsi VCL
Sridhar Karthik	....	compositor: Tata Elxsi VCL
John Kennedy	....	system support: Tata Elxsi VCL
Sachin Keny	....	computer graphics artist: Tata Elxsi VCL
Suhel Khan	....	digital compositor
Swapnil Khandagle	....	computer graphics artist: Tata Elxsi VCL
Pankaj Khandpur	....	visual effects: Tata Elxsi VCL
Ashish Kumar	....	avid editor: Tata Elxsi VCL
Somasundram L.	....	roto artist
Pranab Lahkar	....	compositor: Tata Elxsi VCL
Manjunath M.S.	....	computer graphics artist: Tata Elxsi VCL
Ramachari Murali	....	visual effects artist
Murali P.R.	....	computer graphics artist: Tata Elxsi VCL
Parag Patel	....	visual effects artist
Bharat Patil	....	compositor: Tata Elxsi VCL (as Bharath Patil)
Nitin Patil	....	computer graphics artist: Tata Elxsi VCL
Nirmal Pawar	....	computer graphics artist: Tata Elxsi VCL
Prashant Pawar	....	character texture painter
Ranjeet Pawar	....	scanning technician: Prime Focus (as Ranjit Pawar)
Lennard Pinto	....	computer graphics lead: Tata Elxsi VCL
Jagdish Poojari	....	offline avid artist: Prime Focus
Santosh Prajapati	....	senior fire artist: Prime Focus
Ajay Prakash	....	computer graphics artist: Tata Elxsi VCL
Sandeep Rane	....	assistant fire artist: Prime Focus
Kunal Rasal	....	assistant visual effects producer: Tata Elxsi VCL
Gopal Ray	....	senior fire artist: Prime Focus
Mahesh Reddy	....	data management: Prime Focus
Shaikh Rizwan	....	compositor: Tata Elxsi VCL (as Rizwan Shaikh)
Chandrachur Roy	....	motion graphics: Prime Focus
S. Satyanath	....	computer graphics artist: Tata Elxsi VCL
Vishwas Savanur	....	compositing lead: Tata Elxsi VCL
Nilesh Sawant	....	computer graphics artist: Tata Elxsi VCL
B. Selvamuthukumarswamy	....	compositor: Tata Elxsi VCL
Piku Shahani	....	post-production supervisor: Tata Elxsi VCL (as Piku Sahani)
Shabuddin N. Shaikh	....	scanning technician: Prime Focus (as Shahbuddin N. Shaikh)
Manish Sharma	....	flame compositor: Tata Elxsi VCL
Ritesh Shetty	....	digital intermediate line producer: Prime Focus
Rajesh Shrivastava	....	offline avid artist: Prime Focus
Krishna Suvarna	....	offline avid artist: Prime Focus
Abu Thahir	....	digital compositor
Prashant Thakur	....	compositor: Tata Elxsi VCL
Varun Tikekar	....	data management: Prime Focus
Swapnil Vaishnav	....	assistant fire artist: Prime Focus
Kiran Yadav	....	compositor: Tata Elxsi VCL

Stunts
Abdul Javed	....	action director (as Abdul Javed Abdul Karim)
Mohd. Aejaz Shaikh	....	action director (as Mohd. Aejaz Shaikh Gulab)

Camera and Electrical Department
Tukaram Agre	....	spot boy
Ahmed	....	chief grip operator
Maqsood Ali	....	gaffer: "Bheja Kum" Shooting Unit
Maddineni Ramesh Babu	....	camera attendant: S.35 camera (as M. Ramesh Babu)
Ramesh Bhonsle	....	first assistant cameraman: second unit
Malini Dasari	....	additional cameraperson
Navin Gadkari	....	jib operator (as Navin Gagdari)
Anirudh Garbyal	....	additional cameraperson
Anirudh Garbyal	....	cameraman: end titles
Anirudh Garbyal	....	first assistant camera
Piyush Ghosh	....	jib operator
Gopinath	....	first assistant cameraman: "Bheja Kum" Shooting Unit (as V. Gopinath)
Kusha Gowda	....	spot boy
Lava Gowda	....	spot boy
Imran	....	grip
Nizam Khan	....	grip (as Nizzam)
Manoj Kumar Khatoi	....	jib operator
V. Murli Krishna	....	camera attendant: S.35 camera (as V. Murali Krishna)
Kumar C. Dev Mohapatra	....	jib operator
Prakash Mohapatra	....	jib operator
Somak Mukherjee	....	additional cameraperson
Prakash	....	grip
Ramana	....	crane operator (as S.V. Ramanna)
J. Lakshmana Rao	....	second assistant cameraman: "Bheja Kum" Shooting Unit
Nitin Rao	....	steadicam operator
Rikky	....	grip
Ramesh Sadrani	....	gaffer
Niranjan Sahu	....	spot boy
Jignesh Shah	....	second assistant cameraman & focus puller: second unit
Piyush Shah	....	director of photography: second unit
Tukaram Talar	....	spot boy
Virendra Tiwari	....	focus puller
Gargey Trivedi	....	additional cameraperson
P.S. Vinod	....	director of photography: "Bheja Kum" Shooting Unit
Kumar Prasad Yadav	....	spot boy
Tarun Prasad Yadav	....	spot boy

Animation Department
Arvind Chudasama	....	model maker: title animation 'claymation'
Chandni Chudasama	....	inbetween artist: "3 X 9 = 3" animation sequence
Chandni Chudasama	....	scanning ink and paint: "3 X 9 = 3" animation sequence
Sunil Dhavgade	....	inbetween artist: "3 X 9 = 3" animation sequence
Harshad Godbole	....	model maker: title animation 'claymation'
Vasanth Kumar	....	inbetween artist: "3 X 9 = 3" animation sequence
Vasanth Kumar	....	scanning ink and paint: "3 X 9 = 3" animation sequence
Vaibhav Kumaresh	....	animation sequence: '3x9=3' animation sequence
Siddharth Maskeri	....	additional 3d animation: "3 X 9 = 3" animation sequence
Vishal Mhala	....	model maker: title animation 'claymation'
Ravindra Pote	....	inbetween artist: "3 X 9 = 3" animation sequence
Sunil Pote	....	inbetween artist: "3 X 9 = 3" animation sequence
Vishal Pote	....	inbetween artist: "3 X 9 = 3" animation sequence
Mahboob Raja	....	inbetween artist: "3 X 9 = 3" animation sequence
Mahboob Raja	....	scanning ink and paint: "3 X 9 = 3" animation sequence
Satya Prakash Rath	....	animation camera and lighting: title animation 'claymation'
Jagdish Sutar	....	inbetween artist: "3 X 9 = 3" animation sequence
Dhimant Vyas	....	title animator: claymation
Rampratap Yadav	....	studio assistance: "3 X 9 = 3" animation sequence
Prasanjib Nag	....	animator (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Varun Kapoor	....	wardrobe assistant
K.S. Kashinath	....	dressman
Mohd. Shahab	....	dressman

Editorial Department
Rohan Desai	....	digital intermediate supervisor
Pallavi Singhal	....	associate editor: AVID
Joginder Singh Varna	....	promo on-line editor

Music Department
Vishal Dadlani	....	playback singer
Subir Kumar Das	....	music pre-mix engineer
Amole Gupte	....	playback singer
Prasoon Joshi	....	lyrics
Aamir Khan	....	playback singer
Ravi Khanvilkar	....	playback singer
Ram Madhvani	....	playback singer
Shankar Mahadevan	....	playback singer
Loy Mendonsa	....	playback singer
Kiran Rao	....	playback singer
Adnan Sami	....	playback singer
Shaan	....	playback singer

Other crew
Nabeel Abbas	....	marketing and promotions
Ritu Bhatia	....	assistant: director
Ritu Bhatia	....	director's assistant
Shiamak Davar	....	choreographer: "Bum Bum Bole" & "Tulips Concert"
Ananya Dutt	....	director's assistant: "Bheja Kum" Shooting Unit
Sukanya Ghosh	....	publicity design
Amole Gupte	....	creative director
Amole Gupte	....	painter: Ishaan's other paintings & Ishaan's wall
Saroj Khan	....	choreographer: "Jame Raho"
Hassan Kutty	....	script supervisor & continuity
Samir Mondal	....	painter: Ishaan and Nikumbh's final paintings
Veer Nanavati	....	painter: Ishaan's wall & Ishaan's flip book
Sunil Pandey	....	documentary footage for end titles

Thanks
P.S. Bharathi	....	sincere thanks
Kate Currawalla	....	sincere thanks
Shiamak Davar	....	sincere thanks
Lalitha Lajmi	....	sincere thanks
Medha Lotlikar	....	sincere thanks
Ram Madhvani	....	sincere thanks
Samir Mondal	....	sincere thanks

Production Companies

• Aamir Khan Productions
• PVR Pictures

Distributors

• UTV Motion Pictures (2007) (worldwide) (all media)
• Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (2010) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Anand Recording Studios  mixing (as Anand Recording Studio)
• Bimal Parekh & Co.  chartered accountants
• Channel V  music channel partner
• Epigram  promotions and publicity
• Laqshya Global 'OOH' Media Asset & Solutions  out of home media partner
• Microsoft Network  internet partner (as in.msn)
• Movie Talkies  internet partner
• New Era School, Panchgani  sincere thanks
• Prime Focus  digital intermediate (as Prime Focus Ltd.)
• Prime Focus  digital scanning and recording (as Prime Focus Ltd.)
• Spice  media consultant
• St. Xaviers School  sincere thanks
• T-Series  soundtrack
• Tata Elxsi Visual Computing Lab  visual effects

Also Known As:

"Taare Zameen Par" - India (original title)
"T.Z.P." - India (English title) (informal short title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for thematic material, brief violence and language

Runtime:

165 min

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Ireland:PG | UK:PG | India:U | USA:PG | Australia:PG | South Korea:All

Company:

Aamir Khan Productions

Trivia:

The name Nikumbh, given to Aamir's character, was the name of Amole Gupte's (the creative director and the writer of this film) art teacher, the late Shri R. S. Nikumbh, who was also the principal of the Hansraj Morarji Public School.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the song "Jame Raho," which portrays the busy and mechanical life of the family, Maya is shown ironing a striped short for Nandkishore. Next cut, he is shown actually wearing a plain shirt instead of the just hurriedly ironed shirt.

Quotes:

Ram Shankar Nikumbh:lf you fancy racing, breed racehorses, dammit, not children.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Wake Up Sid (2009)

Soundtrack:

Ishaan's Theme

a special film for the special child in all of us

for a mainstream Hindi film, the following is rare: 1. a film for children2. the only star of the film getting a limited screen space 3. high quality animation4. choosing undertones over melodrama, 5. no regular masala stuff 6. strong message that can actually change lives of people 7. conviction and honesty of the makers palpable in every frame 8. and in spite of all this, the movie offering complete, healthy entertainment...

the only problem with the audience is that although we keep shouting on the extreme want of quality cinema, meaningful cinema, when a good film actually comes, we tend to find more flaws in it than appreciating it. Are we insecure of accepting somebodies honesty and creative genius?

Sure, Taare Zameen Par has moments that could have been better, but shouldn't we just try to overlook those and once, for all, applaud the effort the makers have put...

and believe me it is not difficult... for there are innumerable other moments that leave you spellbound, a wet film over your eyes, a strange pain down your throat, a mild ache at your heart, but a pure smile on your lips... there are times you wish you were a kid...

may be it takes a child to love simple tales told with honesty and warmth... may be we grown ups have lost that quality we all once had... but Taare Zameen Par should touch a chord somewhere in every one's heart... we all have been after all, at least for some beautiful part of our lives, special. the film is dedicated to that special child in all of us...

P.S- no one can hate it...at least i would like to think that way