Mumbai Mirror

Missing brother Faisal, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, tells Mumbai Mirror he has been forced to take medicine by his brother; refuses to say where he is

Mumbai, Oct 15: While Khar police have been looking for Aamir Khan's brother Faisal Khan ever since his mother Zeenat filed a police complaint on Friday October 12, saying he had gone missing, Faisal, who is apparently staying in a lodge in the suburbs, has blamed Aamir for "forcibly" giving him medicine though he has "no mental illness."

Faisal has been receiving treatment for paranoid schizophrenia for a few years, and Aamir Khan recently told a TV channel that he had stopping taking medicine, which in turn had affected his behaviour.

Faisal however told Mumbai Mirror over the phone: "Nothing is wrong with me. He (Aamir) has been forcibly giving me medicine. I have my father [Tahir Hussain] on my side and I keep in touch with him."

Asked where he was, he replied: "Why should I tell you where I am? Who are you to ask me this question?"

Aamir on Saturday cancelled a live chat with his fans on his official website owing to concerns in the  family about Faisal’s whereabouts. He has also reportedly been supporting Faisal monetarily and had given him money to buy farming land, for which Faisal had been travelling out of Mumbai frequently.

Asked about this, Faisal said: “Yes, he (Aamir) did give me money and has been taking care of the family, but now I have stopped taking money from him. I am a poor person, but I am a graduate and have enough money to sustain myself. I would not mind earning my living doing a waiter’s job. I also intend to buy land and do farming.”

Asked if allegations that he had been threatening Aamir and his doctor over the phone were true, Faisal shot back, saying, “Why should I call anyone and abuse them? Do they have any proof that I have been calling and abusing them?”

Asked if Aamir had tried to get in touch with him, Faisal said: “Why should I talk to him? The law will now decide his fate. He has to go to jail.”

Faisal had on September 29 written a letter to the commissioner of police alleging that his brother had held him captive and that he was being forced to take treatment for mental illness.

‘He stopped taking medicines during outstation visits’

Sources said it was during Faisal’s visits in the last two months outside Mumbai to identify land for his ‘goat farm project’ that he probably stopped taking his medicines for paranoid schizophrenia.

Faisal’s failure on various fronts perhaps led to mental problems, sources said. His first film in a leading role, Madhosh, was released in 1994. It bombed, and his career came to a standstill till 2000 when he acted in Mela with his brother. 

His marriage to Samia Kamruddin, a handbag designer in London, ended in divorce a few months later. The failure in both his professional and personal life probably triggered the mental illness, according to sources. Faisal was ill from 2002 but it became worse in 2005 when his condition was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia and he had to be hospitalised for 18 days at a private clinic in Andheri.

He had been staying alone in one of the flats owned by the Khan family in Bandra. Though the flats are in the same housing society, Faisal’s flat was in a separate building in the same compound. Sources said that when his illness was particularly serious, he refused to come out of the flat and speak to anyone, including his family. He even ordered his food from outside. He is also reported to have got into frequent squabbles with his neighbours.

“At that time, he was having hallucinations and suffering from delusions and was highly suspicious of everyone. He was worried people would harm him,” a family friend who did not wish to be named said.

Since then, he has been under regular treatment, funded by Aamir, and was receiving medication and counselling as an OPD (outdoor patient department) patient. He is reported to have been very co-operative in accepting treatment. In fact, he had signed his consent for the brief period when he was hospitalised. “He had been planning to buy land for a long time to rear goats. But it was in the last two-and-a-half months that he started to travel out of Mumbai to look at land,” said a source in the film industry. He had zeroed in on a piece of land in Ahmednagar district to start the business, sources said. Doctors say that it is usual for 40 to 60 per cent patients in any chronic disease to stop taking medication. The problem is more in cases where medications have to be taken daily.