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Aamir Khan on Lagaan & picking issue based films: ‘Primary responsibility as an entertainer is to entertain’
Aamir Khan decodes his script selection process and reveals why he was not hurt by the loss of Lagaan at the Oscars. Read Interview.
Over his illustrious career spanning over 30 years, Aamir Khan has managed to gain the title of being the Mr. Perfectionist of Hindi film industry who manages to bridge the gap between content cinema with the commercial side of filmmaking. The actor has always managed to give out social messages with his films like Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par, 3 Idiots, PK and Dangal to name a few. When asked if he closely picks up scripts based on the idea to spread awareness, the actor said, “I don’t look for issue-based stories and my idea is to entertain people. When someone buys a ticket, he doesn’t come for a lesson in sociology or something else. For that, he can go to college. He comes to the theatre because he wants to get entertained.”
He further added, “My primary responsibility as an entertainer is to entertain. Yes, if I get a story that has something more to it, I would jump into it. Like Dangal, Lagaan, 3 Idiots, they all said something very important, but also entertained. I did a film like Delhi Belly because it was funny. It didn’t have any social message. I also like mad humor. There are different aspects to me as a human being and they reflect in the stories I pick. I don’t pick films based on social messages, but I always react as an audience.”
When someone buys a ticket, he doesn’t come for a lesson in sociology or something else. For that, he can go to college. He comes to the theatre because he wants to get entertained
Aamir Khan
The actor insists that his idea of coming on board a film is always based on merit of the script. “I can’t predict the box-office, so, I always see the potential of that genre and then roughly decide on the financials. No one expected Taare Zameen Par to do the business that it ended up doing. We all expected it to do around 20 crores, so allotted that budget. But it ended up being the second biggest hit of the year,” he recalls and adds, “I always follow the principle that no one should lose money on my films. We decided to make Taare Zameen Par on a budget of 20 crore because I didn’t want any person to lose money.”
I feel you can’t compare two films. If Lagaan and Dangal were released in the same year, one would have won and the other would have lost.
Aamir Khan
The actor signs off remembering the days when Lagaan (which completes 20 years of release today) was the key contender to win the Oscars. He is content with the fact that the film made it to the top 5 in the Oscars. “You all know my opinion on award ceremonies. I give little value to the Oscars because of the process that they follow and the fact that they give every film the opportunity of marketing. You get the window for increasing the audience. But at the end of the day, no award is bigger than the love from the audience, not even Oscars,” he laughs and adds, “I feel you can’t compare two films. If Lagaan and Dangal were released in the same year, one would have won and the other would have lost. Does this mean they are bad films? No, it just means, a certain jury liked Lagaan and a certain jury liked Dangal. In sports, a team wins and the other one loses. But in films, its all subjective and you shouldn’t take this seriously.”
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