Aamir Khan, Bollywood's eternal superstar, talks 'Laal Singh Chaddha', haters, and more

Gulf News

Bollywood star Aamir Khan on adapting Hollywood hit 'Forrest Gump' to Indian tastes, his favourite scene with Kareena Kapoor, and more  Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/entertainment/bollywood/watch-bollywood-star-aamir-khan-talks-laal-singh-chaddha-with-kareena-kapoor-forrest-gump-and-more-1.89832320  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #aamirkhan #laalsinghchaddha

Transcript

00:00Though I have to say that a couple of times on set, while we were on shoot, when we were

00:05trying to, we were having difficulty in a couple of things, I remember Adhya Reddy and

00:10I saying, let's go and see how they've done it.

00:12Really?

00:13And I had loved it.

00:14I saw it three or four times, two or three times at that time and it had affected me

00:18deeply and I loved Tom Hanks' performance and the way the film was.

00:25Aamir, this is Manjusha from Gulf News.

00:27You need to impress me.

00:28Hi Manju.

00:29Yeah, six minutes is what we have.

00:31Okay.

00:32Be on the clock.

00:33Tell me why I should watch your movie.

00:35I've seen it, I'm sold but you need to tell me why should the ones who have not seen

00:39Forrest Gump perhaps watch this one?

00:42Well, I really loved the script that Atul wrote and the adaptation that he wrote.

00:47It really touched my heart and that's when I felt so drawn to it that I had to do it.

00:54I think it's a film that we've made with a lot of love and care.

00:58The character of Lal, his innocence, his purity, he's so pure of heart, doesn't have a negative

01:04bore in him and I think that's such a wonderful thing to see in someone and that's something

01:10that makes me feel very nice, it's very reassuring, it's very...

01:14I wish I could be a little like Lal.

01:16Right, of course, we overthink everything and that's what when I was watching the movie

01:19I thought, you know, Lal is almost extinct, he does not, there is no Lal anymore.

01:25I mean we are so filled with cynicism and hate I would say, not hate, we tend to disbelieve

01:30people like I wouldn't so, you know, where is Lal really in today's times?

01:36No, there is, there are a lot of people who are very innocent and pure and I think that

01:44maybe in all of us also there is a little bit of that if we just tap into it.

01:51Right, right, with this, did you watch Forrest Gump?

01:55I know you worked very hard to get the rights for the movie etc.

01:59But why this one?

02:00When sometimes you feel a classic shouldn't be touched and it is such a cultural phenomenon

02:05why would you even, you know, tweak it?

02:08Exactly, that's what my thought was.

02:10When Atul told me I've written an adaptation in two weeks of Forrest Gump, that's what

02:14my reaction was.

02:15I was like, why are you messing with it?

02:17Just leave it alone.

02:19So, I had the same feeling but when I heard his adaptation, I was sold.

02:23That's what really made me feel that he's done such a beautiful job of, I could have

02:28never imagined that a film like Forrest Gump which is so rooted in American culture could

02:34be actually placed somewhere else and the way Atul did it made me, by the time I finished

02:40listening to the script, I thought I had heard an Indian story, that's how well he had

02:45done it.

02:46So, that's what really, it wasn't something I had planned to do, it was just something

02:50that happened.

02:51Right, right.

02:52How difficult was it to weave the historical bits into like see because you know the American

02:58history people are familiar with but this was set in a different time as well.

03:02Did you also have a say in it on which are the events that you think shaped people's

03:06life or an Indian's life?

03:07Well, I think that was a decision that Atul took when he wrote the adaptation and it's

03:12something that came out of him but what I heard was, it made sense to me so it didn't

03:19occur to me to add any more incidents in this because of course there are many incidents

03:23in the life of any country, sociopolitical incidents but I think the ones that he picked

03:28were made sense to me so I didn't have to offer any change in that.

03:33Right, Amit, it's been such a tough time for us in the last two years with the pandemic,

03:38jobs being laid off, I mean we are being laid off even now like journalism is really going

03:42down so what do you think like do you think this is like the kind of movie that we want

03:46where there is just no cynicism, it's just ignorance is bliss kind of thing, philosophy?

03:51Well, I think certainly all of us have been through a rough time with COVID and it's you

03:55know still in many ways has changed our lives so dramatically and affected us so dramatically

04:00so yes I think a film like Lal Singh Chaddha does make you feel nice, it calms you down, it

04:07makes you believe once again in miracles.

04:10Yeah, Amit even the changing patterns have changed dramatically, we have been exposed to

04:16content from around the world, why do you think Forrest Gump aged so well because there have

04:21been many articles that say it hasn't and many movies haven't aged well when you revisit it,

04:26why do you think this one in your case do you think it has aged well and it still works?

04:31Yeah, I think well to be really honest it's been ages since I saw Forrest Gump.

04:38So I saw it when it first came out and I loved it, I saw it three or four times,

04:43two or three times at that time and it had affected me deeply and I loved Tom Hanks'

04:47performance and the way the film was but when we started to make it because we heard Atul's

04:52script and we kind of locked into that and that had its own you know story to tell so we didn't

05:00kind of revisit the original and try and look at it, we didn't do that though I have to say that

05:07a couple of times on set while we were on shoot when we were trying to, we were having

05:13difficulty in a couple of things I remember Adivya and I saying let's go and see how they've

05:17done it because now with laptops and internet you can watch a film anywhere in the middle of a

05:23mountain you can watch some stuff so we did do that a few times but we didn't really like look

05:29at the whole film and try and take from that no, so the scene where I meet Kareena after very

05:35long and she sees me as a Sardar for the first time that's I think one of the key scenes of the

05:41film and that's also my favourite scene from the original and that was the scene that I was

05:50yeah it's such a moving scene I just love that scene so I hope I did it all right.

05:56Brilliant, I've just I've been asked to wrap. I thought Jenny was being penalised in the

06:00original, do you think even Kareena's character Rupa is also penalised to a large extent for

06:05following her dreams and did you want an update a modern update about it?

06:10Well I think that you know so Kareena's character or Jenny's character in the original that was

06:18Jenny that's one character that's that's gone through a lot of change in its adaptation to the

06:24Hindi version Lal Singh so Jenny has become Rupa but there are large changes because

06:30culturally what exists in America doesn't exist in India so we couldn't have that hippie culture

06:34and all of that instead we had what what happens in India for you know what would happen in India

06:40in a scenario like this perhaps so so actually what was your question again?

06:52Was she being penalised? I just wanted to ask.

06:55No, no actually in in in Lal Singh Chaddha I think it's it's also her what I find is that

07:03Rupa's character is a character who's had a lot of trauma in childhood and and and her

07:10she she finds her she finds it very difficult to come out of a relationship which is damaging

07:18you know I think that's the the sad part about her that you know that's the sad part about her

07:25so I don't think she's being penalised I just think that she's it's rather unfortunate that

07:30she's not able to come out of the of the darkness that she's experienced as a child and that kind

07:37of affects her through her life. Right, she should have done running too. Thank you so much I think

07:42she should have run for another four years of her life but thank you so much for entertaining us

07:46Aamir, my time's up. Thank you, nice talking to you. Thank you for your time, lovely talking to you.

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