A week before the release of his upcoming film Sitaare Zameen Par, Aamir Khan is busy giving interviews. In a new conversation, the actor delved into the reasons why he was not part of films like Darr (1993) and Swades (2004), for which he was initially approached. The parts were ultimately played by Shah Rukh Khan.
In a chat with Zoom, talking about Yash Chopra’s Darr, Aamir said he didn’t opt out of it but was actually fired from it. “I didn’t say no to Darr. I said yes, but I was fired from the film because I wanted a joint narration,” he said. “There were two actors, and I have this principle that if there are multiple actors in a film, then the director should give a joint narration. Yash ji did not want to do that, so he fired me. Everyone has their own way of working. I think when two people are working together, they should listen to the narration together so we can work together as a team.”
The actor also went on to explain that he followed the same principle for Rajkumar Santoshi’s Andaz Apna Apna (1994), in which he starred alongside Salman Khan. “Like in Andaz Apna Apna when Rajkumar Santoshi was narrating for the first time… Salman cancelled the meeting thrice. We got there, but he wasn’t present. His secretary said, ‘Salman will listen to it later, you guys carry on, he is doing the film.’ I said I won’t listen to it either. I will only listen to it when Salman is present. He cancelled thrice, but we finally listened to it together,” he said.
Speaking about Swades, Aamir said he rejected the film because he found director Ashutosh Gowariker’s narration “boring”. “I found it very boring,” said Aamir. “I had said this to Ashu (Ashutosh Gowariker) when he narrated the story to me. In fact, I’ll tell you Ashu narrated the story to me when we were making Lagaan. It was titled Kaveri Amma then. That’s what he told me.
Kaveri Amma was the name of protagonist Mohan Bhargava’s foster mother in the film, and it was essayed by late Kishori Ballal. “I had liked the story very much. I said we’d make that one after Lagaan. After Lagaan released, we made Ashu sit with a writer. AKP (Aamir Khan Productions) was producing it,” he said.
“When the story was ready, Ashu narrated it to me. It was a three-hour-long narration. When he asked me how I liked it, I said, 'I want to tell you my first reaction first.' I said, ‘I got bored. It’s very important for you to hear this reaction. What you’re trying to say is very correct, noble, and important, but if you say it in such a boring manner… I got bored, I don’t know about everyone else.' ” he added.
He revealed he said no to Gowariker unless he can make Swades more interesting. “I’ve actually not seen the film yet. Maybe he’d have corrected it, and people would’ve liked it then. I did note that people loved Shah Rukh’s work in it,” said Aamir.