Aamir Khan is often called ‘the perfectionist’, because of his choice of roles and the dedication he puts into every film. The actor recently opened up about his journey so far at the International film festival of Melbourne. Speaking to the audience, he revisited some of his films and shared candid insights and lesser-known anecdotes from his career.Discussing how his approach to films evolved over time, Aamir said, “After Lagaan, I started doing one film at a time; before that, my producers and directors were not ready to work that way. The way I judge my performances is what I have in my mind and the head of the character, have I been able to bring it in front of my audience, and then have I managed to be consistent.”
Reflecting on his role in ‘Raja Hindustani’, he admitted the character had flaws but felt satisfied with his portrayal. “Raja Hindustani was a good performance; he was a bit of an MCP, but the performance was consistent. I really enjoyed doing Secret Superstar too. In real life, I am very disciplined; my mom has brought me up in a certain way, so I never get to misbehave. In that film, I could do what I wanted, so I really enjoyed it,” he shared.He also revisited Talaash, the 2012 film co-starring Rani Mukerji and Kareena Kapoor Khan, pointing out what he believes held the film back from reaching a wider audience. “Talaash got a good response, but in that film we made one mistake, it could have done better, but our marketing was wrong. We marketed the film as a thriller; we should have marketed it as a supernatural thriller. We should have prepared the audience to expect the climax, which came as a surprise; the larger audience would have loved the film had we gotten the marketing right. You can go wrong at any stage. Talaash was a good film, very well shot, brilliant performances, but I feel we went wrong with the marketing.”
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During the session, an audience member brought up Delhi Belly, prompting Aamir to recount a humorous story about how he got involved with the film. “I was dying to do Delhi Belly, I wanted to do the role of the photographer. It was a strange thing that happened with that film. I was at home at night, and Kiran and I were supposed to go out somewhere. I had to reply to some important emails, so I told her to give me 15 minutes. I was going through my work on the desktop, and she was waiting. On my desk, there was a bunch of scripts I had not read. She picked up the first one, went through it, picked up the second one, the third one, and suddenly she started laughing. I asked her what was so funny, and she was literally rolling on the floor with laughter. I thought that seemed to be a good script. I finished my email, I sat with her, and we read the whole script; we were just cracking up.”He continued, “Later, we checked the first page for the name of the person. Two people who had come from LA, Akshat and Jim, were students. I called them and asked if we could meet. They said they had been in Mumbai for the last three months trying to meet me, and they had just returned to LA the previous day failing to meet me. I asked them if they could come back, and they did. That’s how the film was made. Somebody had told them that they had to give the script to the cook in my house and tell the cook to keep it in my study. That’s what they did, and I had no idea,” Aamir recalled.
