Aamir Khan remains an enigma for his fans who continue to swell by legions every passing year. Yet on a promo tour to Delhi, he dropped guard and got candid about every aspect of his craft. By Unnati Joshi
You look very tired after your multi-city promotional tour. Do you believe this strategy works for films today with such an aware audienceIJ
I have not been able to sleep for around five days. I go to bed at 4 am and sleep for an hour or so before heading out to work. I have always been a bit old-fashioned and have kept my connection alive with traditional print media (Khan actually did only print interviews in Delhi with even vernacular press). I share my thoughts with them and I have high hopes from Delhi. I think I will have a good night’s sleep today (laughs).
Is the beard and moustache look for ThugIJ Have you already slipped into another zoneIJ
Shooting for my next begins in March. This is not the final look for Thug (Vijay Krishna Acharya’s film) but I am growing my beard and moustache. We will finalise the look later. I allow my facial hair to grow in the prep period of any film so that we can play with it.
So what are your expectations from DangalIJ
I don’t ever have monetary expectations from my films. More than expectations I have hopes. I hope people love this film. I hope they feel the same watching it as we felt while making it.
Reality TV shows have become the new platform to promote Hindi films. Be it The Kapil Sharma Show or Bigg Boss, every film release team is there for appearances. Even stars and peers like Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan have participated in these shows. Yet you have refused to promote your film on TV. WhyIJ
I am someone who doesn’t believe in overkill. Anyway our trailers are running on relevant family channels. I will explain the logic behind my aversion to TV show appearances. If I had to sell a small film like Peepli live, which doesn’t have any big stars, I would definitely plug that into a very popular TV show, which is watched by the whole country and addresses varied demographics and concerns. Besides, there is a relatability at play.
The key to marketing and promotion is to create a desire for the consumer. When it comes to my own film, I may go on and on about its release, you may be aware of it but may not be interested in watching it. Then I have to create desire in different ways; I can even create desire by disappearing.
I have a very old-fashioned view of marketing. So I believe that the good old trailer is the best tool for creating a desire in the viewer. It opens a window to the film. Then there are the posters, which I consider an art form.
Also, you are not very active on social media. How do you stay in touch with your fans thenIJ
But I am on Twitter, which is a platform to engage with my audience. The way actors interact with their audience via Twitter is a part of their personality. So if I interact less, that is a part of my personality, doesn’t mean I care less or more. As a person, I am mostly lost in my own world and not even aware of what’s going on around me. I don’t read newspapers for days. I am cocooned in my own world. I have become non-communicative. And it takes a huge effort on Kiran’s part to pull me back to earth. It is not that I don’t value Twitter or Facebook as a platform. I speak less. That’s me.
Did you know anything about the Phogat family before the script was offered to youIJ Are you trying to promote the family or the sport through the filmIJ
I did know about the Phogat family before reading the script because I had researched on them for the TV series Satyamev Jayate. I knew their entire story beforehand. And I think the biggest way we can promote Phogat sisters and Mahavir is by making a film on them. And that we have done. So when the film releases and people watch it, they will appreciate it more perhaps. They will see what the family has been through, the sacrifices and the achievements they have made. The resilience they have shown. The film itself is the biggest marketing piece for the family.
My purpose is not to promote myself or the sports personality. Neither of the two. When I am making a film, it is because I love the story and I am creatively excited. I just want to share this joy with my audience. My primary responsibility is to make a good film and that is what I concentrate on. For example, Raju Hirani is making a biopic on Sanjay Dutt; Sanjay is not in the film but it’s about Sanjay. Ranbir Kapoor is playing Sanjay Dutt. I have heard the script, it’s fantastic. I called up Sanju and told him that this is the first time in the history of cinema that an actor who is not in the film will get more popularity than the actor who has actually worked hard for the film. I said your stardom is already great but it will become greater after people watch the film. So the supplementary benefits of this entire exercise will, of course, go to everyone involved with the film. But to begin with, it will go to the people on whom the film is being made. So you will come to know what Mahavir has done, you will get a closer look at Geeta and Babita. Your respect for the entire family will go up by ten-fold in my opinion.
But that is not my purpose, I am not making an ad film on the Phogat family nor has the Phogat family told me to make a film on them. This is not their intention either. My job is to be a good purveyor of a remarkable story. I am very impatiently waiting for the Phogats to watch the film and tell me if I have done my bit well. Then I will be satisfied. The trouble with biopics is that they automatically shift the gaze to the real life characters. When you watch Bhag Milkha Bhag, of course, you like Farhan but your respect for Milkha Singh goes up.
How was it working with the debutant girls, Sanya and FatimaIJ
Dangal is a very demanding film. And it can be more challenging if it’s your first film. I was happy to see the same kind of passion in all the four girls that I had when I came to the industry. These girls grew up in the city. Sanya is from Delhi and Fatima grew up in Mumbai. They had to transform into girls from Balali village and transport themselves into a different world. They chose this over doing a romcom. It’s easy to do a first film where you are in your comfort zone. I definitely was in my comfort zone when I did Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak. So they have pushed themselves much more. They had to go through rigorous casting. We also tested them for wrestling. I was worried they would not be able to handle the pressure. They worked with such passion and hard work. I never had to ask them to come to the sets on time. When you watch the film, you will see that they are 10 steps ahead of me.
And SakshiIJ
Sakshi was a dream to work with. She is so talented; I can’t remember a single shot in the film where she had to do an extra take. She is a one-take actor with a nice combination of skills and emotions.
How did you prepare yourself for the roleIJ
We used to do wrestling training for two hours, followed by three to four hours of Haryanvi diction. Then we would do two hours of weight-training. That was our routine.
Transforming yourself completely to fit a character is not an alien concept for you. You are always at your best when it comes to getting into the skin of the character. When we watched the trailer, we were all surprised with the transformation but then it gave rise to a lot of speculation. There were people who said it is not physically possible for a man who is 50 to lose 27 kilos this easily.
(laughs) I don’t know anything about their knowledge and their understanding of fitness. let me tell you this, when you try to lose weight, you work on calorie deficit. A person spends roughly 2,000 calories a day. Now if I want to lose weight and especially fat, then I have to follow a balanced diet and within that balanced diet my calorie intake will have to be 1,500 which is 25 per cent less of what I am spending. So on a daily basis there will be a deficit of 500 calorie. At the end of the seventh day, you will have a deficit of 3,500 calories, which means you would have lost one pound in one week. Now let’s assume in that 2,000 calorie spent I add 500 calories more by doing weights. Now my spending is 2,500 and my intake is 1,500. My deficit is not 500 a day now, it is 1,000 a day. So at the end of one week I will lose two pounds. This is a healthy rate to lose weight. It is not recommended to lose faster than that. But is it possible toIJ Yes, it is. I had a particular requirement that in five months I had to look in a particular way, so I had to do that, I had no choice. My deficit of calorie was 2,000 a day for the first three weeks. And even I couldn’t dare to continue this after three weeks. But it gave me a kickstart and I lost six kilos in the first three weeks. That’s the science behind it.
Now I don’t know what theory those people are following. I followed this theory.
The songs of the film are attracting a lot of attention already, be it Bapu Hanikarak or the Dangal song. How did the team work on them and what was your contribution here as a producerIJ
Kiran and I have a house in Panchgani. So I called over the team, Pritam, Amitabh Bhattacharya, to work on the music. We would brief them in the morning and then they would lock themselves in a room and work on the tunes. And everyday in the evening they would come to us with a song. Each song was finalised in the first hearing.
You always promote your films in a unique way but you are not very active about Dangal, even with he trailer. ReasonsIJ
I can’t remember why I didn’t launch the trailer of Dangal formally though it is well-circulated already. I must have been busy. It’s a rumour that I promote my movies in a unique way. Marketing is very much a part of filmmaking and I do whatever is required. For example, in 3 Idiots I was travelling around the country in disguise. That concept came from the film’s story. The movie was about two friends who are searching for their third friend. I thought let me disappear and my friends, my audience will look for me then. So people might think it is an innovative idea, but it is not, it was just the requirement of the film.
My intention is to always send a message that we have made a film honestly and what it is about.
You are playing a father to four grown-up daughters in the film. How are you as a fatherIJ
In reality, I am a father of two grown-ups in any case, so it wasn’t difficult for me to play this role. I am a very indulgent father. As parents, both Kiran and I are not too harsh on the kids. We are not too soft either. We don’t want our kids to be spoilt. But we are not strict. When we need to instill discipline, we do that with love.
Farhan Akhtar recently said in a statement that he might work on a female version of Dil Chahta Hai. Who do you think can play the female AkashIJ
I think Farhan has a good idea there. You should cast young girls in the film. Out of the three, two should be Fatima and Sanya. Both are bright actors. It was a mistake when they cast me, a 36-year-old man, for the film. We should not repeat the same mistake. Farhan should cast actors in their early 20s.
After reaching this stage in your career, do you have to put in extra thoughts to select a filmIJ
I feel very blessed that I don’t have that kind of fear or carry a baggage of my last outing. Even if I have hits serially, I do not go in the direction of either the people or the industry’s expectations or work under pressure. Which is why after doing a big film like 3 Idiots, I am very comfortable doing a small film like Talaash. As an actor, I genuinely follow my heart and instincts about what I want to do and what I want to do is very unusual and clutter-breaking. That is why I don’t take money from the producers, we share the profit. When I want to work on something, I don’t want them to question me. Because I am not charging anything, they won’t. I am working for free; if it works we will earn together. I always go with my emotions at that point of time and that gives me a lot of freedom to do what I want to. Which is why I am able to do different and unusual films. I enjoy experiencing each story and character in a different way and that is what I am living for. I don’t feel the need to surpass myself.
As a creative person, I will do the films that I want to. As a producer, I never sell my film. Instead, I give it on commission to the distributor.
Also I am very instinctive about a film’s fortunes. I conducted a meeting with my team before Talaash and told them that it wouldn’t earn above `70 crore. I knew the figure wouldn’t go up. If it earned above that, I told my team we would be more than happy. The film did better than we expected. It earned 95.
Now why did I go for this filmIJ I found Talaash very unique as it was a film about coming to terms with loss. That’s a very rare topic. Each one of us, whether we like it or not, have or will lose somebody close to us. Death is the ultimate reality. We never prepare ourselves for a loss like that and when that actually happens, we can’t deal with it. And not just because of death, you sometime lose people because of certain circumstances. That pain of losing someone is Talaash. Every character in that film had lost somebody and I found that very beautiful. I have also worked in Dhobi Ghat, which earned only `15 crore.
What’s your estimate for DangalIJ
You people are badmaash (laughs). When we conducted the meeting for Dangal, I wasn’t worried about the business and never thought about the limit, honestly. The requirement of cost was `60-70 crore. We were sure it would at least earn that much.
You have always given hits but as an actor do you ever get the pre-release jittersIJ
I fear for every film of mine, despite the planning. I remember when Ashu (director Ashutosh Gowariker) and I were working on lagaan, everyone in the industry told us it would not work. We were speaking Awadhi, wearing dhotis and playing cricket. The match scenes were unending. Reena (now ex-wife) told me that she couldn’t understand the language we were speaking in the film, how would the audience do soIJ There is a scene in the movie where I say, Ma, ye beda uthake maine kauno galti toh nahi kar di haiIJ So I told Ashu instinctively, Ashu, yeh beda uthake hamne kauno galti toh nahi kar diIJ Fear keeps me alert. And it’s also a part of my excitement.
Do you believe in box office ratingsIJ
Unfortunately, this is all fake. Most of the time wrong figures get published on the basis of paid publicity. But everybody in the industry knows about the actual figures (laughs). So, whatever you read or see, forget that. Ask the distributors, they will tell you the truth. I make sure that we don’t publish fake reports. I have already told my producers and distributors that we won’t do it. Talaash earned `95 crore. I could have easily added another 5 (laughs) but I don’t believe in that.
Most of your films release around December. Is this month lucky for youIJ
I am hoping that my previous films didn’t work because of luck (laughs). They worked because people loved them. My films get ready at the end of a year. From a holiday point of view, both Diwali and Christmas are two important dates. It’s more of a coincidence that my films get released on Christmas, but it’s a happy coincidence. I like Christmas.
How was it shooting in Punjab again since it wasn’t your first time shooting thereIJ
Punjab is a fantastic state to shoot in given my earlier experience with Rang De Basanti. It’s very difficult to shoot outdoors without the cooperation of people. In that sense, people from Punjab are very cooperative and hospitable. In ludhiana, people would greet me by the roadside, be it morning or evening. And it continued for 90 days. Where do you get to see thatIJ When one of my friends came to meet me on the sets, one elderly man stopped him saying, “Don’t disturb the team as they are shooting.”
Your meticulous choice of films and attention to details have given you the title of Mr Perfectionist. Does it put any kind of pressure on youIJ
It puts no pressure on me because I don’t believe in the title, it is inaccurate. The correct title that fits me is not Mr Perfectionist but Mr Passionate. Perfection according to me does not exist. Certainly not in the creative field. There are so many different opinions, so how can there be a perfect ideaIJ When I am in a shot, there are many elements that need to be right. There are a lot of technical problems because of which a shot has to be redone. What I look for, therefore, is whether one has been able to capture the heart of the moment. Then everything else falls in place.
Any recent films that you have watched and likedIJ
I don’t watch films much but I liked Sultan and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. I liked Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma’s work in ADHM. I loved the songs.
Photo: Pankaj Kumar