So, as a director, he had conceived this that while the film is going on, Bhuvan is like any other villager and only when he says, ‘Sarat manjoor hai’, he becomes the leader and everyone follows him. Usko bhi hum jyada bhav nahi dete, we don’t consider him a leader’. He told me, ‘See, you’re not my hero, Aamir. I got a bit scared and asked him, ‘Aren’t we doing a bit too much of an experiment? After all, we were making a mainstream film that audience should like. The iconic cricket team of villagers in Lagaan He made Ismail, Bhura and others stand in the center, and told me to go towards the extreme corner. After he got the trolley timing right, he said, now, ‘I’ll give you your positions’. But later we realised, Ashu was doing the rehearsal only for the trolley timing, he wasn’t bothered about us. We did a couple of rehearsal where I came and stood in front of the camera, and everyone else collected around me.
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He told us to come from different directions and gather at one point in the frame.
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So, Ashu put the shot, set the trolley and said he wants to capture our faces. ghanan ghanan ghanan, arrey baarish aane wali hai. I remember one day, we were shooting for a scene where we see the clouds coming and the temple boy is playing the drum, making noises, and we all get excited. So at what point were you convinced that nothing will go wrong from here?
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So, while I trusted him, his script and his ability that’s why I was going ahead, par kahin par ek darr bhi lagta hai ki, yeh beeda utha kar humne kono galti toh nahi ki ( laughs). So, Lagaan is probably my most unprepared performance, as a result.Īlso, Ashu had given two films before this, which weren’t so successful. Also, it was the first film I was producing, and I was paying more attention that nothing goes wrong. Itna kaam tha as a producer ki main as an actor prep nahi kar paaya. I think my lack of prep in Lagaan, I can honestly blame it on my work as a producer ( chuckles). Did that at all play a part in you getting lesser time to prepare for your role?Ĭertainly. You were also turning producer with Lagaan. I would literally learn my lines on a day before the scene was to be shot. But, I didn’t have that prep time in Lagaan. But I had 3-4 months then, every word had to be pronounced correctly and I had spent three-four months with the phonetics teacher. What happens normally is, like in PK, I’ve spoken Bhojpuri or in Dangal, I’ve picked up Haryanavi. Director Ashutosh Gowarikar and Aamir Khan during the shooting of Lagaan (2001).Īlso, the fact that you used to prepare your lines a night before the shoot, is that true? Actually, I had been preparing in my head slowly, but I had never got the chance to share with Ashu ki main aisa soch raha hu, and if also imagined Bhuvan like that? So that was the day I got to share with him and luckily it worked for Ashu also, and what we were thinking, we were on the same page. You’re just assuming that I would do it right’. So literally, the last day I said, ‘You’ve spent time all other actors, mere saath ek bar bhi nahi baitha. Lagaan was such a prep-heavy film that neither Ashu nor I had the time to sit and discuss my character at length. (laughs) Yeah, he said apne paas waise bhi time nahi hai, jo tu kar raha hai, yahi correct hai. Would you recall this story in detail for us? And it was a night before your first day of shoot in Bhuj that you asked him to sit for sometime. I remember from one of our earlier interactions, you had mentioned that you didn’t get to spend a single day with Ashutosh and discuss about your character, Bhuvan. Is it a likely story? Yes, it is a likely story, but it’s not based on fact.
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There were many British officers at that time, there were many Indians at that time, so aisi koi kahaani agar Hindustan mein ghati hogi toh humne uske baare mein suna bhi nahi hoga. However, the script that Ashu (director Ashutosh Gowarikar) wrote is so close to real life - that something like this could have happened. Lagaan was entirely a fiction there was no truth in it at all. Lot of people still wonder if Lagaan was loosely based on a true story or was it a work of pure fiction. As he talks to us for an exclusive chat via zoom call, the actor opens up about the highs and lows while shooting the film, the unique mix of casting, what if it released and possibility of a remake. Both Khan and the film won several accolades and 20 years later, the memories are still so vivid in his mind. This concluding voice-over in Lagaan (2001) is perhaps the exact opposite of what the film - in which he played an iconic character - did to Aamir Khan’s career. Aur Bhuvan ka naam itihaas ke panno mein kahi kho gaya.