Taare Zameen Par - Cast

Cast

• Darsheel Safary as Ishaan Awasthi: In looking for an actor to play the central figure of Ishaan, writer Amole Gupte turned to Shiamak Davar's Summer Funk workshops. Gupte had several boys informally audition by explaining to him how they would react to scripted situations from the film. Of his decision to cast Darsheel Safary, Gupte recalls that "it was a tough call. But Darsheel has the mischief in his eyes to be Ishaan. Everyone just naturally gravitated towards him."
• Aamir Khan as Ram Shankar Nikumbh ("Nikumbh Sir"): Gupte, who based the character on his art teacher Ramdas Sampat Nikumbh, initially asked Akshaye Khanna to play the role.
• Tisca Chopra as Maya Awasthi ("Maa"): Ishaan's mother, who gave up her career to raise her children. Chopra tended to speak softly during filming and was subsequently required to re-record some scenes using automated dialogue replacement.
• Vipin Sharma as Nandkishore Awasthi ("Papa"): Ishaan's "strict, hard, dominating father". Part of the reason for Sharma's casting was his "extremely strong and dominating" face that "exudes harshness." Described by Khan as "naturally polite" and sensitive, Sharma was instructed to lower his voice to sound "harsh" and "dominating".
• Girija Oak as Jabeen, Nikumbh's co-worker
• Sachet Engineer as Yohaan Awasthi ("Dada"): Ishaan's elder brother.
• Tanay Chheda as Rajan Damodran.
• Bugs Bhargava and Shankar Sachdev as Sen Sir and Tiwari Sir: Two teachers at New Era whose attitude towards Ishaan softens as his grades improve and he wins the art contest. The roles are caricatures of teachers in general.
• M. K. Raina as the principal of New Era High School.
• Lalita Lajmi as herself in a cameo role. It was her first acting experience.