Aamir Khan Productions was set up in 1999 by Hindi film actor Aamir Khan with the purpose of producing the film Lagaan. He decided to produce Lagaan after the script was not purchased by any other studio. B. Shrinivas Rao also joined AKP as the line producer on Lagaan. The movie was released in 2001, with Khan as the lead actor. The film was a critical and commercial success, and was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category along with four other foreign films, eventually losing to No Man's Land. The film won many major awards at several award functions such as Filmfare and IIFA. B. Shrinivas Rao later served as the executive producer for Khan's directorial debut, Taare Zameen Par, and became the executive producer for the production company, supervising all of its productions. Khan also starred in Taare Zameen Par, sharing the screen with the child actor Darsheel Safary (in his acting debut) and Tisca Chopra. The film was initially conceived of and developed by a husband-and-wife team, Amole Gupte and Deepa Bhatia. It tells the story of a young child who suffers in school until a teacher identifies him as dyslexic. The movie was critically acclaimed,. Taare Zameen Par won the 2008 Filmfare Best Movie Award as well as a number of other Filmfare and Star Screen Awards. Khan's wife, Kiran Rao, also worked as an associate producer for Taare Zameen Par. The third film produced by the company was Abbas Tyrewala's Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, released in July 2008. It marked the debut of Aamir Khan and Mansoor Khan's nephew, Imran Khan, and it was co-produced by Ritesh Sidhwani. The fourth offering from AKP was Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries), a low-budget art house film written and directed by Kiran Rao. It focuses on four characters – one of them played by Khan – from different walks of life in the city of Mumbai.
