Interview With Aamir Khan Options

[catch22]

THE INDIAN EXPRESS
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
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Analysis

on the record

Aamir Khan, Actor

‘(After Gujarat) I think I grew as a human being, as I grew from being a child to an adult’

Padma Bhushan awardee Aamir Khan is recognised for his sensitive and intelligent performances. Lagaan (2001) consolidated his reputation, a film he produced and starred in, which was nominated for the Oscar. Khan is an actor with a conscience, touring Pakistan to raise money for Imran Khan’s cancer hospital and raising his voice against the Gujarat riots. He tells Shekhar Gupta, Editor-In-Chief of The Indian Express in NDTV24 X 7’s Walk The Talk that he identifies most with characters who are not afraid to fight againt unjust regimes



Aamir Khan • What a setting we have found for you. Delhi’s Red Fort.

Yes, I have never been here actually.

• Considering the fact that you have been shooting your films in that sort of a period for some time, surprised you haven’t shot one here.

I would love to shoot here. It’s a beautiful place. I’ m glad we are shooting here so that I can take a look at the Red Fort and how things were at that time.

• What is this fascination... 1857, the 19th century fascination?

You know it’s quite a coincidence actually.

• Lagaan, The Rising...

It’s not a fascination I have for that period or any such thing. Lagaan as a film, as a story, intrigued me and interested me. The fact that it was in that period, was incidental in my decision to do the film. Similarly, when I am doing Mangal Pandey, it’s the concept of the film, it’s the story that interests me. It just happens to be set in that period. So it’s not the fascination of the period, it’s the coincidence that I happen to be doing a number of them so close together. But the concept that interested me in The Rising, is the concept of freedom and Mangal is essentially used as a symbol who represents that part of the Indian society which had begun to awaken, begun to question. It’s about the rising consciousness at that time.

• Because Red Fort was actually a symbol of 1857. And this is where many of those who fought on the other side against the British were then brought and punished and made an example of. In fact, since then this place became a symbol of British power. 1857 was about freedom, Lagaan was defiance.

Actually Lagaan was more about the triumph of the human spirit, the ability of the underdog to achieve the impossible—that was really the theme of Lagaan. And the theme of Rising is the concept of freedom. While the film is set in 1857, it is actually very relevant even today. It’s about a superpower, a society which is extremely powerful at any given point of time, which feels it has a right to govern and take over other societies, tell them how to live life, exploit them completely, which is happening even today. It’s very relevant even today.

• But you have this underdog theme running through many of your movies. Rangeela for example.

In popular cinema the underdog is the character which is very appealing to audiences and I might have played it more than once. Again, not intentionally.

• But which one did you enjoy doing most?

Between Rangeela and the films I have done, there are a number of films I have enjoyed doing.

• Which character did you get most immersed in or which character do you sometimes live now, some odd occasions.

I don’t live my characters beyond the duration of the film.

• Do you sometimes wake in your Munna (identity)?

No. I would love to pretend it does. But that doesn’t happen to me. If I can get into the character for the duration of the shot itself, for me that itself is a big achievement. It’s tough enough even to do that. Among the characters I have played so far, I guess Munna from Rangeela or Sanjay Lal from Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikander, Bhuvan from Lagaan, ACP Rathore in Sarfarosh, Akaash from Dil Chahta Hai—these are the few I can remember, which I found interesting.

• See, all these comparisons with Russel Crowe come because of not just your inclination but your sort of obsession with living the character. For a song you get drunk, you grow your hair. By the way do you miss all that stuff.

No, I am quite relieved it’s no longer there, because I was getting a little tired of the long hair. It’s very difficult to look after and the moustache was getting in the way too much.

• But that’s not what everybody does—getting drunk, getting fat, getting thin.

Well, I enjoy my work. I like doing it with all my heart. I would like to do it with a lot of passion. Until that scene you are talking about in Raja Hindustani, I had never consumed alcohol in my life. I play the scene where I am completely smashed, so I told the director I don’t know what it feels like to be drunk.

• So that’s a good excuse for getting initiated into alcohol.

In fact it is. As it turned out, I did for the duration of the scene. I was completely sloshed while we were shooting that scene. I figured by consuming alcohol, the physical aspects of slurring, of body language when you are drunk would get taken care of by the alcohol. So it reduced my work as an actor.

• So you didn’t mind getting drunk to get a good shot. Keshto Mukherjee or Johnny Lever...

They do a good job. I have to say Keshto Mukherjee did an excellent drunk and so does Johnny.

• Shah Rukh in Devdas.

Shah Rukh Khan in Devdas—I would have done it differently. Well, I felt that the way Devdas was approached by the creative team that made the film, I had my reservations with that. I feel that Devdas is a character who is doomed, who is a flawed character. He is essentially a flawed character, he is essentially a weak character. Therein lies his strength if I can put it that way or therein lies his uniqueness and that’s what makes him appealing to us. It is his lack of strength, his lack of ability to take a stance and then his streak of self-destruction, which makes him appealing to us. So a weak man who is very self-destructive but who has got a lot of ego and pride as well along with it and I felt that’s an interesting character. And I felt in this case the creative team kind of removed all these weaknesses from the character. Well, they put the blame on the parents and the turmoil of the character didn’t come through for me at least. So I mean getting drunk and sloshed is one thing but feeling a certain way and near destroying yourself...

• Did you see a bit of hamming there?

I don’t know. I would have done it differently let me put it this way. I think Shah Rukh is a very talented actor and Shah Rukh has lots of strengths as an actor which perhaps I don’t have.

• You’ve got this unique business model to do one film in three or four years and you make all your crores from these ads. Very sustainable model.



I don’t know whether it’s a business model or how good it is. I don’t normally do one film in four years. It just happened that in the last four years I did just one film. And the reason for that was purely personal. I was going through a lot of problems because of which I didn’t work for two-and-half years. So this gap was unplanned, unintentional and it’s not something that has happened earlier or will happen again. But yes, I do one film at a time and I think I have never looked upon it as a tactic or as a good business move. It’s more how I want to work. I have always wanted to work this way. I began working in films and that time I was doing more than one film at a time which was what the norm was. I was extremely uncomfortable doing that.

• It’s unusual to have a star of your stature say you lost a couple of years because of personal turmoil. Where’s the star cynicism? Personal turmoil and things are for people like us.

No no, certainly not. In fact, I would say that probably celebrities are people whose personal lives are constantly being discussed publicly. So in that sense, the various turmoil that celebrities go through...

• But many of them enjoy it. They want it.

Well, maybe. I guess personal trauma and stuff in your life are things that most of us all go through in our lives and each of us deals with in our own way.

• This was to do with your marriage.

This is to do with my marriage.

• That’s many years.

That’s 16 years.

• So it’s not as if you just walked out of your marriage because you found a better relationship or a more attractive person.

Why and what happened to the marriage is not something I would like to discuss publicly.

• You’re certainly a metrosexually grown up man. But there were complexities involved there.

Yes, there were certain issues which ultimately, in this case, my wife and I were not able to resolve. And it resulted in the breakup of our relationship.

• The popular view about stars is that you got fed up of a relationship or got tired, something became stale or you found someone more attractive. If a star stays on with a relationship, it seems to be an unusual thing.

I don’t want to go into the intricacies of what happened and why our relationship in particular went through certain problems. But certainly, it was a period which was extremely traumatic both for Reena and myself and both our families and certainly our children. We did the best we could under the circumstances. And I guess that’s it.

• But do you regret it?

That’s a tough one. I don’t think that’s a question I will ever be able to answer.

• From one grown up man to another.

Yeah. I think that’s a question I will constantly keep asking myself for the rest of my life and I will never come up with the right answer because I value Reena very much and I always will.

• It certainly wasn’t by choice.

What? Sorry... our breakup?

• Yeah.

Of course it was. It was certainly by choice.

• By choice, as in just deciding overnight to move on to something else.

No. It wasn’t as simple as that.

• And how have you handled it, your children?

Well...

• Life after divorce. Again a metrosexual issue.

I have a lovely pair of kids—my son Junaid and daughter Ira. They both are very very close to me and to Reena. And for them, as far as possible, we have tried to make sure things don’t change and, in fact, they haven’t. The one change that has happened is that I have begun spending a lot more time with them purely out of emotional choice and need. Something that I should have been doing much earlier. They are doing very well. I think they are kids with lots of sense and they are very rooted and they were extremely close to both Reena and me and they handled it really well.

• The reason I am asking you this is not because of cheap thrills of getting into a filmstar’s life. You know divorce and running your life after divorce in a very competitive world is a challenge that a lot of growing, successful people face these days. It’s tougher in case of a filmstar because everything is under the magnifying glass.

Yes, it was tough specially because of the fact that I am a celebrity and that must have made it complicated not only for me but for everyone involved in this issue. But we did the best we could, to handle it.

• Would you have any advice for other people who face the same trauma?

Certainly not. I don’t think I am capable of giving that kind of advice. I don’t think I can be as presumptuous as to have answers for all these things. I don’t think I have them.

• But it’s never smooth.

No it’s not.

• It does prey on your mind and soul.

Why only a marriage breaking up. I think any relationship which you build over time or when you lose a person, somebody dies in your family, any relationship which breaks up causes you trauma. To deal with that is never easy. There is never one way of dealing with it. You have to find your own way.

• That’s very interesting because most stars would sort of handle that cynically with a nonchalant raat gayee to baat gayee.

I don’t think that is accurate.

• At least in public they would.

I don’t know. I have been noticing that you have been saying about stars and stars.

• Frankly I haven’t heard a star talk like this about their personal relationship.

May be.

• Either it’s a facile ‘doesn’t matter’ or ‘I wouldn’t talk about it’...

Yes. What I would like to really say here is that this statement that stars would react this way or stars would react that way, it’s very important to know that stars or celebrities have not come from Mars and Jupiter.

• There is talk about media getting into stars’ personal life and things. Now we have a new trend—hidden cameras, the Shakti Kapoor business. Does it interest you?

I think it’s appalling. I think it’s really appalling what happened. I think the channel is trying to say that it was doing an expose of how the casting couch operates in the film industry. I think that point of view is a complete sham.

• Why do you say so?

Because that’s not what they were showing. They were showing a girl who was flirting with a particular person. I don’t care who it may be. The girl is flirting with the person for six months and he is an adult and it is his personal choice of what he does with his life, who he meets, who he doesn’t. And he was certainly not doing something illegal, he was certainly not coming on to her and it wasn’t a case of molestation. Here was a girl who was flirting with this guy and he was reacting to her as he would. The point of view that it is meant to expose how the casting couch system works in the industry, is a sham to begin with. The fact is that it is completely appalling that you go into a person’s personal life. According to me, it is fraud. It’s complete fraud. It’s a case of fraud over here.

• Is there a casting couch?

I’m sure there is. I’m absolutely sure there is. I have had no personal experience of it with myself or my associates around me. So I cannot say I have experienced it or even heard about it. And I’ve been working for the last 15 years as an actor and four years before that as an assistant director. So it’s almost 19 years that I’ve been in the film industry. I’m sure it exists. The reason I’m sure it exists is not because I have any examples to go by or stories I have heard but because of my commonsense that tells me that I’m sure it exists. And not only in the film industry, it probably exists in many walks of life. I’m sure it exists in every walk of life where a person wants something done and is willing to do something in exchange, you know, is willing to do something to get something in exchange.

• Aamir, talking about your life, one thing about you is your elusive nature. You don’t party, we don’t know who your friends are, you don’t land up at most film events except the few you choose. Now we see you coming out a little bit, signing this document on Narendra Modi and things like that. What events deserve Aamir Khan? How do you decide what deserves Aamir Khan?

You are making me out to be some complex person. I’m sure I’m as complex as the next person. Well, public events, I’m careful about going to because I feel that I want to go places that I enjoy going to and I feel comfortable going to. There are places where I specifically don’t want to go to because I am trying to make a point, things I don’t want to support, people perhaps I don’t want to support. So there are places I don’t go to for particular reasons.

• What is this new thing about Narendra Modi? I was reading some piece that during the Bombay riots you called Prahlad Kakkar and the two of you went out to rescue your driver from the slums. Has Gujarat sort of strengthened that?

I think I grew as a human being, as I grew from being a child to an adult. I realised that there is a lot of poison that can be spread in peoples’ minds. For example, what happened in Gujarat is really appalling. According to me, somebody like Modi is there, I mean there were Indians killed over there, innocent Indians killed over there. It is completely irrelevant whether they were Hindus or Muslims or Christians or Parsis or Sikhs. They were Indians being killed by a leader who was supposedly a leader, and he is responsible. He and his party, he and his people are responsible for the killings and trauma of thousands of Indians. And, in my opinion the person and the people who do this, indulge in this kind of things, are most unpatriotic. It’s a completely anti-Indian thing that has been done.

• Because they damage the idea of India.

They damage the idea of humanity first of all. They damage the idea of a good healthy society and nothing has been done about it or very little has been done about it. Certainly, there are people who are raising their voices and it is good to see that. But I have complete faith.

• In the system.

Not in the system, in the people of India. And I feel that at the end of the day, the people of India are people with a lot of warmth and they eventually do come through. They might get misguided for some time.

• I am sure you saying this will get them inspired and that will make a difference.

I don’t know, but I hope so.

• Do we expect that one of your future films will be more contemporary, dealing with some of these problems?

In one way or the other, a number of my films are dealing with similar problems. Sarfarosh... I don’t know whether you saw that. It dealt with this issue. You know nowadays, you have this thing, the US rejecting the visa for Mr Modi and that has become a thing of national honour now. I don’t see it that way.

For me it is not that. I have own views with the US and I have a lot of problems with George Bush. They are not few in number. But I have a problem with our reaction.

• Our reaction is over the top.

First of all, we should say here, we didn’t penalise a person who’s been killing innocent people. Somebody else is raising a voice. That voice may be America, it may be, I don’t care who it is. We should have taken cognisance of this much earlier and since we haven’t, let’s take cognisance of this now.

• Aamir, before we conclude would you tell me the dream role you want to do. I know everybody asks this question but you give an interview once in many years so I can ask you now.

In fact my dream role probably is the role of Karna from the Mahabharat. I read the Mahabharat which was really fascinating.

• Aamir Khan with earrings?

I don’t know whether I can play Karna because Karna is a warrior and he’s meant to be six-and-half-foot tall ideally. So I don’t think I will ever be able to play that role, but the mind of the character is what really fascinates me. He is a very heroic character, he is a character with a lot of sacrifice, and a lot of strength and a lot of loyalty.

URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=67808