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1Happy birthday to Aamir Khan.
He’ll always be one of the greatest actors in Bollywood. Yes he’s made some bad choices as has everyone else, but his good choices have made incredible impact on Hindi cinema. From Lagan to Rang De Basanti to Tara Zameen Par to Dangal.
Oh yes, his birthday was yesterday...the oldest of the "three Khans" 😊
He may not belong to MY favourite actors but - without any doubt - belongs to those with interesting, very successful and well-made movies. I wish him health and many positive work-years in future 😊
If you've watched DCH, RDB and Gajini, you may enjoy this little birthday gift, a fanmade video:
Happy birthday.
Part of some of greatest, pathbreaking films that changed face of commercial Indian cinema.
I am glad he did TZP, RDB, 3 Idiots.
No one else could have chosen TZP as a directorial debut and produced it.
He taught the world there is more to Bollywood than romance or action.
A sensitive story teller.
Part of our childhood.
You may debate him offscreen but he is sincere onscreen.
He exposed fraud awards, bikau media and political interference in creative liberty of actors. He worked and succeeded on own terms in a ruthlessly notorious and rigidly traditional culture. He is not a bootlicker or sycophant nor feeds biscuits to media.
That alone is his success.
May you choose better scripts like old days. Set new benchmarks in content and BO as you did earlier. May you take fewer breaks and have less controversies.
Thanks for memories and best of luck for future.
It is not negative but a compliment to Aamir for being the first and most gutsy Indian mainstream star to expose this fraud system.
Only after he took a public stand, others also got courage to speak about it.
Aamir made name for self without kissing ass of media or paan masala awards or big banners.
He is one of rare stars to boycott media for 15 years and still give big hits. And won everything from National awards to Padma and went to Oscars.
He rewrote the rules. He charted his own path.
When others were writing him off, he made path breaking films like Lagaan, TZP and went to Oscars.
He never had to do bullshit talk shows or koffee shows at his peak to stay relevant or have Rendezvous with retired starlets. His work spoke for itself.
He had guts to take up issues which no one else did and still make commercially entertaining films. Only he could have done TZP and made it a superhit.
He proved you could give hits without item songs, big heroines or foreign locations or sex scenes and multi starrers or cameos by big stars.
And this is his greatest achievement that sets him apart.
He was first to insist on bound script. Others followed suit. He was first to focus on one film at a time when others did dozens at a time. Now all actors try to do one film at a time. He focuses on all details and aspects of filmmaking and does focus screenings and knows pulse of audience unlike others who do not know their audience nor pay as much attention to detail or craft.
For this he deserves all accolades.
Media was writing him off earlier when he spoke against the system. He proved them wrong and set new records both in quality and BO. That is his accomplishment and essence of what it means to be Aamir Khan.
It is not negative. It is his iconoclast attitude that deserves credit.
He was also first to get into social media, blogging and interact directly with fans and even meet his blog followers in person, personally respond to them. He knew potential of social media way before others got on bandwagon. He set new trends in marketing and directly reached out to audience and markets films also as per subject of film and not generic fanfare about himself.
Very few have this sense. He never cheats his audience. He tells them what to expect. He makes audience wait for him and audience does indeed wait and show up whenever he does something new.
That was his rare achievement in an era when stars are over exposed and desperate for attention 24/7, uploading stuff online.
This is not negative but a testament to his success and uniqueness.
I used the word culture for work culture of Bollywood and not Indian culture alone.
It has nothing to do with religion.
I now understand why you felr offended.
Let me clarify, Indian film industry and society in general have a chaaplusi type culture of sycophancy, conformity, bootlicking, bribe, sugar coating and following same old path or formula (which I referred as tradition). Aamir was bashed to the hilt in 90s for questioning and defying this system, speaking against it and bringing own ideas.
Media and likes of Mahesh Bhatt would say Aamir would not survive one day after banning film magazines, awards and doing only one film a year or openly having differences with biggies like Yash Chopra and Mahesh Bhatt or nitpicking in details of each aspect of filmmaking.
He was labeled control freak, nakhre wala, wannabe Hollywood star, repressed director, know it all and whatnot. He was accused of doing khit pit and being hard to work with. Obituaries were written for his career when he even stopped doing stage shows. Or worked with newbies like Farhan, or flops like Ashutosh and Rakeysh Mehra. Or did films rejected by others (like Lagaan, RDB, TZP, 3I, DCH).
He defied them all. Proved them wrong.
When he was boxed as just a message actor but not a commercial force, he did Ghajini and proved bashers wrong and started 100 crore club. When he was called a one time fluke he set more records with PK, 3I, D3, Dangal.
He always proved naysayers wrong.
That is why I wrote those words.
It was not about religion as much as it is about Indian industry mostly making formulaic content and expecting chaaplusi, asskissing, bootlicking in order to survive or succeed. Or making films like TZP work in era of sex scenes, kissing scenes and item songs.
Very rarely does a person get to succeed on own terms and change rules of the game in a rigid and mostly formulaic and close minded society and industry like this, which is not open to new concepts so easily nor do people like to use brain when they watch films. Aamir doing it on own terms is a miracle. He made even serious subjects like TZP work and his films had good impact in real life too. He is a trendsetter. He defied odds.
The tradition and culture I talk of is the rigid and bootlicking work culture here. Something that Satyajit Ray and Abhay Deol have also spoken of and rigid or less open to new stuff audience here. Kay Kay Menon also spoke about audience here less accepting of content deviating from formula.
I hope I am clear now, what I was referring to and why I see Aamir as an exceptional success in this sense.
I also admire Aamir for owning his weaknesses, showing his vulnerability and admitting he failed as father or husband or did not devote enough time to family and blaming self for his 2 divorces and anxiety of his daughter and admitting he is slow or did crap films in early 90s or admitting his fans dislike his breaks and being aware of what his fans like or dislike in him and not being afraid to cry or show emotion in public. He has admitted his mistakes. He has never tried to hide his flaws or come across as some ideal man. He is real with his blunders and weaknesses. He drops causes at whim, which is his weakness too. He never tries to pretend to be perfect. He takes breaks, he has anxiety or trouble managing emotions or handling failure or expectations after huge success. He goes underground, without bothering about ad deals or time or money he is losing. That vulnerability is also rare for a male public figure to show in public and admit it. And still succeed despite having troubled relations and own idiosyncrasies and burning bridges with lot of people.
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