Mr Blockbuster
(Part III)
In Bollywood, Aamir Khan is considered to be an intellectual. But he does not agree. According to him, he does not take himself seriously. And money is not a big thing to him. Just give him a good book, a strong script and a day, and he will be happy.
He learnt two valuable life lessons from his childhood. One was how to tell a story, as he would sit in a corner of his drawing room listening to writers and directors pitching their narrations to his father. “My father would say things like ‘tell me the story in one line please’, ‘what is your premise’ or ‘but where’s the conflict?,” remembers Khan, things he now knows are taught in film schools. He also learnt the importance of making money for the producers and distributors of his films. “As an actor it is my responsibility to ensure the producer makes his money back and the audience gets its money worth,” he says. It’s one reason the cerebral actor, who gets excited by Rajmohan Gandhi’s biography of Gandhi, also proudly admits to reading Bollywood trade papers. After all, as a child, his father would make him write down box office collections of his films on the phone from places such as Amravati and Aurangabad.
As much as he is an individualist, Khan needs his family around him. He’s close to his mother, Zeenat, now 74, who lives in Pune and whom he is now persuading to return and live with him. There are things she taught him he will never forget. “I remember I would come back from my tennis matches and tell her I’d won, and she would congratulate me while making tea for me. And then ask, but what of the boy who lost? His ammi must be very upset. That would be enough to depress me.”
 Lagaan (2001)
Director Ashutosh Gowariker
Khan says, “When I told the late Jhamu Sughand, who was a hardcore businessman, that I’m doing this film with Gowariker and it will cost a lot of money, he didn’t blink, he never asked me are you sure? 1893 and cricket? Sport films haven’t worked in India, but he didn’t question me.”
Rang De Basanti (2006)
Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
“I told my sister, who is in New York, that I was making the fifth remake of Bhagat Singh. The first four had flopped. She told me you’ve got to be kidding.” The film’s nihilism set off debates and its emotional activism sparked candlelight marches but Khan’s flashy DJ was memorable. To use his words, “so nice”.
Taare Zameen Par (2007)
Director Aamir Khan
“It was written by Amole Gupte who directed it for a week, until Khan, the producer, took over from him. He made a simple story of a dyslexic child into a timely move questioning the education system, which turned out to be a surprise hit.”
3 Idiots (2009)
Director Rajkumar Hirani
“My character Rancho was written in a dangerous way. He had no flaws. Your heart doesn’t go out to him. It’s the flaws that make you loveable. When I realised that very early on, I told Hirani I don’t want to play it in a heroic manner as he will get on people’s nerves. I didn’t want to play it smart but naturally curious.” The role required him to lose 10kg, act like a 17-year-old, terrorise a principal, deliver a baby, and break off an engagement. |
It taught him empathy and he started regarding his rival as a human being, whom he would share a cold drink with or an after-match vada pav. There are other things she taught him well – he’s probably the only star who knocks before entering a room in his own home and who remembers to show visitors the washroom while they wait for him to freshen up.
He also seems to be looking better than ever. Khan attributes it to his dietician Vinod Dhurandhar who brought his weight down to 68kg while making 3 Idiots. He slept eight hours a day at least and also started playing badminton, sometimes two hours a day, with students at IIM-Bangalore where they shot for 3 Idiots for over a month. He drinks four litres of water a day. He has stopped smoking for over a year now. “I just went cold turkey,” he says. “I realised this with the three-hours-a-day, six days-a-week training I did for Ghajini for over a year. The human mind is a very powerful tool. If it wants something badly, the body will give it. It’s like what yogis say.” Yet for such a sober individual, Khan can be a fun person, who enjoys learning skiing with his children in Canada as much as he takes pleasure in the piano lessons his wife Kiran gives him. The best part about him, says long-time friend, ad man Prasoon Joshi who’s worked with him on several campaigns and written songs for some of his films, he doesn’t take himself too seriously.
Amit Khanna, chairman of Reliance Entertainment which distributed 3 Idiots, believes Khan is a throwback to the Dilip Kumar-Raj Kapoor-Dev Anand era when filmmakers lived for cinema and believed it had a higher a social purpose beyond making money. “Yet he’s as savvy as the new kids on the block.” Khan doesn’t quite put it so grandly. “Money doesn’t excite me. It gives me comfort but it’s not what makes me tick. Neither does throwing my weight around, or making a noisy entry or making a scene. Give me a great book or a great script and day.” Given his anointment as the new box office guru of gyaan, there should be no shortage of the latter.
