When asked on.his weakness, Aamir said, he isn’t able to work according to a budget. They had pinned hopes that Lagaan would be made in Rs. 12 crores, but its budget ended up being Rs. 25 crores.

Adding that amidst  Lagaan, they had done extensive prep; ideally, there shouldn’t have been a problem. One day, he was doing his make-up. Suddenly, Reena (Reena Dutta) and Rao sahab (production manager Shamala S. Rao) told him that there was a problem. They said, ‘Ashu (director Ashutosh Gowariker) had asked us for 200 extras. They arranged for it. But now he is saying that 200 extras are not enough’. He left his make-up on and met him. He told him ‘200 people look like just 20 people’ as the shooting site was wide. He asked for 800-1000 more people. Aamir realized he was right. Reena and Rao sahab were angry with him. They were like, ‘Whatever Ashu says, he agrees’! But Ashu was stating a fact. Reena asked him (Aamir) ‘ then what to do today? Aamir replied, today lets play cricket (laughs)!”

Aamir further went in to add , then he suggested that they could film a small scene. Half a day had gone by, but let us utilize the other half. Or else, could shoot. But there will be no fun in wrong shoot.
Aamir further went on to state that when he turned producer, decided that he will work the way he always wanted to. He introduced the first AD system. Then, there were no walkie-talkies. They brought the communication system as well. For the first time, a film was shot in just one schedule. They even got sync sound, which was rarely done in mainstream cinema. Aamir always wanted to shoot in sync sound and shoot in one schedule and wanted the real sound of the actor; there’s a certain quality to it. It can be tiring to recreate it (amidst the dubbing process); you need to relive those moments.

Aamir Khan further went on to state that those days around, there was no security on the set. The poor junior artist supplier used to provide security! For Lagaan, he called Ronit Roy and asked him to secure the set as it was in the middle of nowhere. It was built on a huge area. Suniel desired to secure the building where Indians were put up and also the equipment. There were 150 security guards. Again, this was done for the first time in Hindi cinema.”

Summing up Aamir says that “for the first time, a security system, communications system, first AD system, sync sound and one schedule happened with Lagaan. Definitely, all of these things worked and they are the norms today.

News Edit KV Raman