Managing, director? Aamir Khan

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Posted: 18 years ago

Managing, director?

Aamir Khan lost faith in Amol Gupte as a director when he saw the rushes of Taare Zameen Par. That's when he decided to take over

Aamir Khan is all set to make his debut as a director with Taare Zameen Par. The film was earlier supposed to be directed by Amol Gupte. However, the story goes that mid-way through the film, Aamir and Gupte had major differences resulting in Gupte being shown the door.

The film is a sensitive story of a child and his teacher. And yes, this is the first film that will officially credit Aamir as director. This has been confirmed by Aamir Khan Productions. This is the production house's second film after its first venture Lagaan.

Aamir Khan

A source from Aamir Khan Productions says, "After the first week of shooting, Aamir saw the rushes of Taare Zameen Par. He was not happy with what he saw and felt that Amol Gupte's original script was not translated well on screen. So Aamir called Amol and bluntly expressed his displeasure. In fact, Aamir lost faith in Amol as a director when he saw the film's rushes."

Adds the source, "In all fairness, Aamir also offered to return the script to Amol, so that he could make the film for another producer, with another actor. However, Amol insisted that Aamir produce and act in the film. He wasn't ready to go to any other producer. And it was Amol's decision to step down as the film's director. This left Aamir open to the option of finding another director. Both Amol and Aamir discussed various names, but finally Amol suggested that Aamir direct the film. Amol also felt that he would be most comfortable with Aamir as director, as he had spent a lot of time with Aamir on the script."

Now Aamir, who always wanted direct a film, began thinking about Amol's suggestion. As this was a very big decision for him, he needed a day to think about it. This was not an ideal way to direct the film, he thought. Yet finally Aamir decided to go ahead and direct the film.

The source further adds, "Aamir decided to don the director's cap mainly because any new director coming in at this point would not be familiar with the script and the shooting would take a back seat for a few months, until the new director became comfortable with the script. In his case, the film's pre-production was already done."

Another reason why Aamir decided to direct the film was that they couldn't delay the film's shooting to 2007 summer, when the schools are shut. They also had to be careful as the film's child protagonist, Darsheel Safary, would grow up considerably and the production house would have to look for another child for the sake of continuity, if the film's shooting was delayed. Aamir wanted Darsheel to play the main role as he was the perfect choice.

Aamir has been known to be creatively involved in his films like Lagaan, Dil Chahta Hai and Rang de Basanti.

The shooting of Taare Zameen Par is now complete and the film is in its post-production stages. The film will release in December 2007.