Parel or Lower Parel (Portuguese name: Parella) is central part of Mumbai. It is also lends its name to two railway stations (Parel and Lower Parel) on the Mumbai suburban railway. The Elphinstone Road railway station on the Western line of Mumbai Suburban Railway is also situated in this neighbourhood. It lies in the western part of Parel (Parel West, also known as Elphinstone due to its proximity to the Elphinstone Rd. railway station). Most of the mills in Mumbai used to be in this area till some years ago. Now, most of these mills have shut down.

Parel was one of the original seven islands that formed Mumbai. It belonged to the 13th century kingdom of Raja Bhimdev. The name has come from the Parali Vaijanath Mahadev temple, dedicated to Shiva.^{[citation needed]}

When the Portuguese conquered Bombay, they gave the authority of this area to the Jesuit priests, who replaced the Parali Mahadev temple with a church and a convent (probably the present-day St. Pauls' Church and Convent). These buildings remained with the Jesuits until they were confiscated by the British, after the priests sided with the Sidis during their battle with the British in 1689 and spelt the area as Parell.^{[citation needed]}

Aamir Hussain Khan (pronounced [ˈaːmɪr ˈxaːn]) (born 14 March 1965) is an Indian film actor, director and producer who has established himself as one of the leading actors of Hindi cinema.

Starting his career as a child actor in his uncle Nasir Hussain's film Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973), Khan began his professional career eleven years later with Holi (1984) and had his first commercial success with Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988). He received his first National Film Award as a Special Jury Award for his roles in the films Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) and Raakh (1989). After eight previous nominations during the 1980s and 1990s, Khan received his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor for his performance in the major grosser Raja Hindustani (1996) and later earned his second Best Actor award for his performance in the Academy Award-nominated Lagaan, which also marked the debut of his own production company.

Following a four-year break from acting, Khan made his comeback playing the title role in the historical Mangal Pandey: The Rising (2005), and later won a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor for his role in Rang De Basanti (2006). The following year, he made his directorial debut with Taare Zameen Par, for which he received a Filmfare Award for Best Director. This was followed by Ghajini (2008), which became the highest grossing film of that year, and 3 Idiots (2009), which became the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all-time, unadjusted for inflation. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri in 2003 and the Padma Bhushan in 2010 for his contributions towards the arts.