Article--Aamir khan--The man who dared

(a) The film is about a dyslexic child. (b) The hero doesn't appear till the interval. (c) There's no romance, glamour or sex. (d) The pace of the film is gentle and leisurely (for these zero attention span times, dare we say it – slow?) At best, a film like this could do the festival circuit and win some polite applause. But a box office success? Impossible

A AMIR KHAN made the impossible possible with Taare Zameen Par. The film worked. As anyone who knows any- thing about Hindi films will tell you, a film that manages to make an emotional connect with au- diences can never go wrong. And that's what Taare Zameen Par did. But why did Aamir choose this story? The truth is that the story chose him. "When I heard the script, I felt it sensitised me. I wanted to share it with everyone. I found it tremendously moving. I was crying all through the narration." How the film got made is quite well known by now. Aamir's long-time friend Amole Gupte came to him with the idea. Aamir loved it and decided to produce it and act in it. Amole was going to be the director. But when Aamir saw the first week's rushes, he wasn't happy. "I called Amole and told him that I had lost faith in him as a director. But since the material be- longed to him, he'd spent five years writing and researching it, I told him I'd back off as producer and actor. He could direct it for someone else. But Amole said he'd rather I stay on as producer and actor, he would step back as director. The decision not to direct the film was his own." Both of them discussed who could step in as director. Aamir suggested three names: Mansoor Khan, Prasoon Pandey and Ram Madhvani. But, says Aamir, they realised that if a new di- rector came in at that stage, the proj- ect would get delayed by a few months as the new person would take time to get familiar with the material. Meanwhile, the boy they had found to play the title role of Ishaan – Darsheel Safary – would grow old- er and not be able to do the role. And Aamir was sure he wanted Darsheel and only Darsheel to play Ishaan. "It would have been very difficult to find such a gifted actor," he says. That's when he decided to take the plunge himself. "Both Amole and me were very upset of course. He (Amole) was there during the shoot- ing but not the post-production." Was Aamir nervous? "There was no time to be nervous," says Aamir. "It was a crisis situation. I just had to go and see it through." I'M ACTING in Ghajini, a remake of a Tamil film. It will be my only release this year. It's a very mainstream, entertaining film, an exciting thriller about a man seeking revenge. The problem is that he can only remember what happened in the last 15 minutes. So he keeps writing everything down. I loved the concept. I'm trying to work out a lean, tough look for the film so I've been training for about five months now. I'm working out six days a week. I'm also on a special diet which is really working for me. Are you inaccessible? I THINK I am quite inaccessible. When I'm working on a film, I'm totally inaccessible. I have to be with myself then. I can't meet people and do my work. I need to stay focused. During the post-production of Taare Zameen Par, I wouldn't meet anyone. I couldn't. Being in the position I'm in, a lot of people want a piece of me, and I can understand their point of view. But I just don't have the bandwidth to do so many things at the same time. I'm not good at multi-tasking. So I have to be harsh with myself and others What's the best part about being a big star? I ENJOY the attention I get. But the best part about being in the position I'm in? I really enjoy being able to bring a smile on people's faces. I may be in my car and someone smiles when they see me – it's the ability to bring a smile on a stranger's face that I really value. PHOTO: MANOJ PATIL RISKY BUSINESS LAGAAN If you had to put down the idea of the film in three lines, it would have sounded completely bizarre. I would have become the laughing stock of the industry if it hadn't worked. DIL CHAHTA HAI This was also your usual mainstream film either. It was a slice of life – nothing dramatic really happens in the film. RANG DE BASANTI I rang up my sister in New York and told her I'd signed the sixth Bhagat Singh film. She thought I was mad! What's your next film?

Why do you shun award functions? IT'S BEEN 15 years now and I haven't attended any of the pop- ular award functions. If I valued them, then getting awards for Taare Zameen Par would matter. But since I don't, getting these awards has no meaning for me. It's not an ego issue or anything. Tomorrow if I feel the award ceremonies have done away with their inconsistencies, I'll start attending them. The only awards I attend are the National Awards. My audience is what matters to me. I always see my films with the audience. I watch in one theatre till the interval, then the second half in another theatre. You can feel the audience's reaction. If there's one thing you can say with surety about Aamir, it is this: he's always been a risk-taker. Let's rewind to his first production, Lagaan. Director Ashutosh Gowarik- er had taken the idea to everybody in Bollywood and been turned down. Everything was wrong with the idea. It was a period film, and period films hadn't done well in years. Viewers would see a cricket match for close to one hour of the film (which was three hours, 42 minutes long). The premise of the film itself was bizarre – a bunch of villagers agree to a cricket match to escape tax. Characters spoke in English or Avadhi. They wore uni- forms or dhotis. Ashutosh Gowariker himself had two flops behind him (Pehla Nasha and Baazi). Who would be mad enough to produce and act in this film? Says Aamir, "I could have become the laughing stock of the industry." He didn't. Or take Rang De Basanti. When director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra narrated the script to Aamir, the last of the Bhagat Singh films had been released. Aamir rang up his sister in New York and told her he'd just signed the sixth Bhagat Singh film. "Are you mad?" his sister shrieked. PHOTO: MANOJ PATIL Webbed feat MY BLOG began as an attempt to create awareness for the DVD of Lagaan which was being released six years after the film. It was some- thing I was doing for the first time, but once I started getting responses, I began enjoying the process. I began moving to other topics apart from the DVD. I began to share lots of things with people online. That's when I decided to move it to my site. It was not a way to bypass the media or anything like that. It's just something I found I really liked and that's why I'm doing it.

Is your wife directing you? It didn't help that Rakeysh had a flop to his credit: Aks. Aamir's explanation is simple: "When I believe in something I go for it, whether it's risky or not. I always feel that if this idea is connecting with me so much, surely – if it's translated on screen well – it will con- nect with other people too. It takes me time to make up my mind, but once I do, I'm there a hundred per cent." Taare Zameen Par also connected with Aamir. And he thought it would connect with viewers too. Four months before the film's release, he had a meeting with his marketing team who asked him what sort of business he thought the film would do. "Like Rang De Basanti," Aamir told them. They were, expectedly a , bit taken aback. At the same time, Aamir had two concerns. First, he thought small chil- dren wouldn't take to the film. "I thought you had to be at least ten or 12 years old to understand it," says Aamir. "Children of five or six would rather watch Tom and Jerry or Super- man." He was also not sure how the youth would react to the film. Would- n't they want more 'entertainment'? Both these, says Aamir, are huge seg- ments of the audience. If they didn't like the film, it would never do the kind of business he anticipated. For- tunately he needn't have worried. , Kids have loved the film. In hindsight, says Aamir, he can understand why . "As a kid, I loved watching fantasy ," he says. "But I also liked Oliver Twist and Enid Blyton's Those Dreadful Children. When I look back, a lot of those emotional stories also appealed to me. In Taare Zameen Par, kids identify with Ishaan. And the film is connecting with young people be- cause what Ishaan goes through in the film is very real for them." (Inci- dentally Aamir's children – his 14- , year-old son Junaid and his nine-year- old daughter Ira – also love the film.) And as he says, the success of Taare Zameen Par (and his other off- beat films) gives him the courage to follow his heart. Not that his heart al- ways urges him to take the unusual path. He's also been attracted to hard- core commercial films like Fanaa. "Oh I loved Fanaa," he says. "It gave me some great moments. The writer and director are consciously and con- fidently jumping logic. But for me, it worked as a mushy Mills and Boon romance. The emotions really worked for me, specially in the second half of the film." His next release, Ghajini, is also a solid mainstream entertainer. Recently, he was offered a movie for 20 crore. He turned it down. "They didn't even have a script!" he says with some astonishment. "How could I accept?" How indeed. If he was that kind of man, would he ever have made Taare Zameen Par? YES, KIRAN is going to direct a film. I love the script and I'd love to be part of it but she doesn't think I fit into it. Actually, there is a role that I suit, but I think she feels my presence will be distracting. Kiran wants to shoot it in a guerrilla fashion, with a really small crew of about five people. I attract too much attention. What she's trying to make is very unusual. But I'll be involved in whatever way she wants me to be. I'll certainly continue to give my feedback on the script, help her with the scheduling etc. "IT WOULD HAVE BEEN VERY DIFFICULT TO FIND SUCH A GIFTED ACTOR AS DARSHEEL SAFARY" Are you at war with the media? A AMIR ONLY talks to the press when his film is about to release.' I heard this criticism so often that I didn't give a single interview before the release of Fanaa or Rang De Basanti. I work very hard on my films, and the media is an important bridge between my film and my audience. So it was a very tough decision, but I did it because of this allegation. Today, there are so many publica- tions, so many 24-hour channels, and they all need you for their TRPs or read- ership. I can understand where the media is coming from, but no matter how big your need to enter my space, it doesn't give you the right to do so. I haven't become a celebrity with your permission. I have a right to my privacy. Tomorrow someone can barge into my house just because I'm a celebrity and want to know what I eat for lunch. Also, you have to understand the back story. There was a phase when the me- dia came down on me like a ton of bricks. Every story about me was nega- tive. It was like a courtroom. One publi- cation did a story saying that Mangal Pandey was a flop – one day after its re- lease. You can say you hated the movie. But you can't lie about its collections. There were personal stories about me. I began to feel persecuted and victimised, and I went into a shell. I didn't know how to deal with it. Then some of my media friends told me that if I wanted to make a difference, if I wanted my voice to be heard, I should engage with the media. I guess my reaction to stay away was an emotional, knee-jerk reaction, which is why I've corrected it now.