Ageless Aamir Khan and India

The cool heart throb of the Bollywood - Aamir Khan is a measured man. Without hyping his social work and public commitment the quiet Khan rolls out his charity. Not only his movies are fussless flickers but also his personality. This cool cucumber style of Aamir endears him to the masses.

In an interview to The Times of India on 6 December 2009, Aamir Khan says,

Aamir Khan refuses to be bound by conventions. In his forthcoming film, 3 Idiots, the 44-year-old plays a 20-year-old management student. Not surprising, as he is one Bollywood actor who believes in taking up challenges, on screen and off it. Whether it is to raise his voice in support of Narmada Bachao Andolan or demand that Kiran Bedi be appointed as Chief Information Commissioner (CIC), Khan actively involves himself in various social causes. However, he has steered clear of politics till now and tells Meena Iyer that it doesn’t excite him. Excerpts from the interview

Recently you wrote to the Prime Minister asking for the appointment of Kiran Bedi as Chief Information Commissioner. You’re passionate about this cause, aren’t you?
I’ve been in touch with Arvind Kejriwal, one of the people who has been instrumental in getting the Right To Information (RTI) Act passed. I think the RTI Bill/Ordinance is probably one of the most important achievements in Indian democracy since Independence. The RTI is a very important right for every Indian. The commissioner, who is meant to overlook the entire process, should be someone who is upright, honest and has a high level of integrity so that the spirit of RTI is maintained. If the PM feels that there is someone more qualified than Kiran Bedi, then he can choose that candidate but the process of appointing the CIC should be transparent.

You’ve been involved with several social causes like Teach India, Teach for India, Association for Democratic Reforms. Do you nurse political aspirations as well?
The reason I don’t make my political views public is because I feel that politics is private business. Being a celebrity, I do have a certain influence on a certain section of society. It is, therefore, all the more important how I express my opinion or what I express my opinion on. As far as the politics of this country is concerned, if ever there is a political party or an individual who I feel I must support, someone who can take India where it ought to be going, then I will support them. I am yet to come across a political party that will take India where the country should be. It is not as if I want to stay neutral. Tomorrow if we have an Obama, be sure I will be speaking for him.

So politics doesn’t excite you?
I have no political aspirations. Politics doesn’t excite me. What excites me is the creative work I do. Story-telling excites me; making people laugh and cry excites me. Being a creative person who is concerned about society, I feel I can contribute a lot to the society through my own profession. Through my professional I can inspire, I can heal, I can influence thought processes.

Salman Khan paints to de-stress. We hear your stress-buster is the piano...
No, no, I’ve just learnt to play two-three tunes on it. My children Junaid and Ira play the piano. My wife Kiran is very good at it. Actually, reading is my stress-buster. I’m a voracious reader. Also, I play chess, badminton, cricket and tennis.

What are you reading right now?
I’m reading the third book of the Millennium Series — the Girl who kicked the Hornets’ Nest. It is a crime thriller written by the Swedish writer Stieg Larrson who died before his series got published.

What has been your biggest challenge as far as films go?
One of the biggest challenges is playing a character who is 20 years old in my next film 3 Idiots when I’m actually 44. I loved Raju Hirani’s Munnabhai series. When I heard the final draft of 3 Idiots, I freaked. But I kept asking him how can I play a character who is less than half my age. But he was convinced. Besides my physical appearance, Raju felt that my screen character, Rancho, is saying some very important things. And he felt I was the ideal choice to be saying those things on screen.

One hears you got jittery before the actual shoot began?
Even before boarding the flight for the first day’s shoot, I sent Raju and my producer Vinod Chopra a text message asking them if they still wanted me or had they had a change of mind. Quite honestly, I’m worried. Until the audience sees 3 Idiots, I won’t know whether we have been successful in this mad experiment of ours. Having said that, it is the job of an actor to play different ages, even different sexes. I played a woman in Baazi. I played a 60-something Sikh in one of my commercials. So, I guess an actor should be open to challenges. But I admit that when you are pushing your physical age, it is tough.

Your character in 3-Idiots is closer to your college going son’s age, isn’t it?
Yeah, Junaid is 16. And the character of Rancho that I play goes from 20 to 23 years.

Besides films, what else excites you?
I am very interested in farming. Kiran and I want to grow our food. The joy of actually being able to grow something and then feeding people is a noble thing. It is also very therapeutic. I’d love to try organic farming. There are so many things I want to do in life. Hazaar khwaishein aise ki har khwaish pe dum nikale, bahut nikale mere armaan, magar phir bhi kam nikale... are the lines that would best sum up my state of mind.

Like Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan, you’ve been offered big money for television. Tempted?
I’ve been offered a lot of money to do TV. But game shows don’t excite me. I will only do TV if the programme I’m anchoring can dramatically contribute to society in some form.

Heard you are writing your autobiography right now?
Nahin yaar, I have just thought of writing my autobiography. I should start the process soon. It is something that I would like to do.

You’ve become a habitual blogger?
I blog because it a way of taking my relationship with my audience forward. I have travelled a long distance in my relationship with my audience in the last 20-years and I feel comfortable sharing certain things with them through my blog.

Your last film Ghajini is the biggest Bollywood hit ever. So, who according to you is the bigger Khan --Shah Rukh or you?
I have never claimed to be supreme.

Have you been discriminated against because of your surname or religion?
I have never noticed any discrimination because I wear the Khan surname. Whenever I’ve been frisked at airports, so have other people. Being stopped at an airport is part of a security drill. Unfortunately, in the times we live in, security is a big concern. It is important for us to support security procedures. As far as the other aspect goes — the Constitution of India doesn’t allow discrimination on the basis of sex, caste, religion or language. But I would be lying if I said that such discrimination doesn’t happen.

Are you a hands on husband or plain indifferent?
When there are guests at home, I’m very helpful. I like to make a good impression on the guests. I can make a cup of tea and boil an egg. And if Kiran wants me to wash dishes, then I do.

Glamour Quotient in Society

Stars are always crucial for the social development. Without star power and glamour there is no forward movement in the society.

Pritish Nandy writes in The Times of India (2 November 2009_)

This is a question many film makers and brand managers are asking today as huge star cast films and big brand launches keep failing every other day. Can stars really give a film a great opening or a brand, a spectacular launch?

But before one answers that, the simpler questions are: Who is a star, what makes for stardom? Everyone talks of star power but ask them what exactly it means and all you get is tired clichés. We all know who the stars are. We know Amitabh Bachchan is a star and will remain one, whatever his age may be. We know Aamir is one though it took him years to reach there. So are Shah Rukh, Akshay, Rajnikant, Salman, Hrithik, Aishwarya. We know Dhoni's one. So is Sachin. Yuvraj may become one. Shammi Kapoor was one. MGR and NTR used their stardom to get ahead in politics. Chiranjeevi tried. Govinda failed. Rajesh Khanna blew it.

Earlier, we had no stars, only talent. Ashok Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt, Madhubala, Kishore Kumar, Meena Kumari, Balraj Sahni. No, they were not stars but they were actually bigger. We had Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra, Shashi Kapoor. You loved them for their performance, their success. Stars today are judged by neither. You may be an awful actor but a big star. You can have a string of flops behind you, each worse than the other, but you can still strut around and demand outrageous fees because you're a star. Your producers have to fudge box office figures and claim that your miserable flops are huge superhits in the hope that your next film may give them a better opening. No one believes the claims made in movie ads apart from a few dimwit, gullible fans but your PR machinery can spin these lies around and ensure that in your next movie too you can still ask for fees twice the entire production budget.

Stars can say anything, do anything, ask for anything. Give a star a great acting role and its likely to be turned down. A dumbass role is what stars die for and they call their dumbass films, masala movies. Nowhere in the world does such a definition exist. There are good movies, bad movies. Fun movies, sad movies. Popular movies, pretentious arty movies. All of them, if well made, in a honest budget, have a good chance of success. A recent horror movie, Paranormal Activity, made for Rs 7 lakh, has already fetched Rs 300 crore in theatres and well may cross Rs 500 crore. The Blair Witch Project was made for Rs 15 lakh and grossed Rs 1000 crore. Both movies had no stars, no fancy locations, no great producers to back them. They were made out of the sheer joy of film making.

So was Hangover, a recent Hollywood hit which held our box office in thrall. It had nothing going for it (no stars, no great locations apart from a Vegas parking lot, no production budget worth talking about) and yet the script was so clever that the film refused to go off the screens even in snooty multiplexes. On the other hand, some of Bollywood's monster flops in recent months have had huge star casts and unheard of budgets. Everyone worked overtime to cover up these debacles and pretend they never happened.

But let's get back to my moot question. What does a star bring to the box office or the brand? Is it a spectacular launch? If so, why is Bollywood littered with the debris of huge star cast movies that never even took off at the box office on the first weekend or crashed on monday morning? As for brands, how many do you recall by their star power? Yes, viewers associate stars with specific products but they mostly get the brands wrong. They are so busy latching on to the way stars talk, dress, behave onscreen that they miss the entire brand connect. You are more likely to recall the zoozoos or the pug because they actually stand apart.

Fans are more obsessed these days with a star's haircut, lifestyle, goss, sex appeal to notice his films or the brands he endorses. So the disconnect keeps growing, between a star and what he's actually paid to do. Stars imagine that a week of last minute promotions can sell anything. But even God can't do that. Also, overexposure kills stars these days. They're on chat shows, corny music videos, reality shows, ads, fashion ramps, magazines, internet portals, blogs, Facebook, twitter, fanzines; in newspaper supplements wholly dedicated to the propagation of their stardom; at New Year eve hotel bashes, cricket matches; dancing at weddings; inaugurating anything from a salon to a shoe store; stomping the election trail for history sheeters ready to fork out the right amount of cash. How do you expect anyone's mystique to survive such extreme greed?

Indian Film Industry in Social Change

Films can play a very powerful role in social change. Whether it is bringing communal harmony or development of underdeveloped areas, films are the best way to communicate to public for a wider change. This message was given by President Pratibha Patil in the National Film Awards function.

The Times of India writes on 23 October 2009


Describing cinema as India's soft power, President Pratibha Patil on Wednesday said that more needed to be done to create social change
through films.

Speaking at the 55th National Film Awards for 2007, Patil said, "Cinema should not only be a source of popular entertainment for families and individuals, but also a vehicle of social change.''

The President also awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke award to legendary singer Manna Dey. Expressing his happiness at the award, Dey said, "I am overwhelmed. It feels absolutely great.''

I&B minister Ambika Soni said that in an effort to make the awards more contemporary and focussed a panel of eminent experts would soon be constituted to advise the government. She said that the National Film Awards needed to reflect newer developments that were happening in the field of cinema. "There is a need to re-invent the National Film Awards to make it more contemporary,'' she acknowledged.

The awardees who were present to receive the award included director Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Priyadarshan, director of `Kanchivaram', the Tamil film which won the best direction award, Shefali Shah, given the award for the best supporting actress for her role in `The Last Lear', and child artiste Sharad Goyekar amongst others.

Actor Aamir Khan, Anil Kapoor and director Aditya Chopra gave the awards a miss.

Kaminey: Confused Good Plot

Vishal Bhardwaj wanted to film the fallout of fake Marathi manoos campaign by politicos. To tell this crucial theme he confuses the audience without any limit. May be he is afraid of the consequences tell this straight.

Guddu and Charlie (double Shahid Kapur) were gone wrong in their teens. Charlie becomes a notorious man, Guddu wanted to achieve great things in life till Sweety (Priyanka Chopra) chases him to love and marriage. A gangster’s sister cares less for her brother’s violent clout when she chooses Guddu. On the other hand gangster brother can go to any extent to promote his Marathi manoos for the sake of his political ambitions. Their cross cultural love doesn’t fall in the ambit of gangster brother’s political motives.

Sweety pulls Guddu for a passionate sex without protection. When Guddu resists she says that she won’t get pregnant without condom encounter because she is a home science topper! Defying her assurances Sweety gets pregnant and pressurizes Guddu to get married in a flash of a minute.

Naturally Marthi manoos filled brother runs with a gun to shoot down his brother-in-law. On the other side Charlie took a guitar with crores worth of cocaine. In a mistaken identity police takes Guddu for Charlie.

In the need the gun battle between the gangs fill the area with smoke. Audiences were left with sorrow. Their money was looted for a good theme but a bad presentation.

Glamour & Ladies in IPL Auction

Diamond shining, Gucci flashing Bollywood heroines walked with pomp and show into the Indian Premier Leauge (IPL) auction venue. Preity Zinta, Juhi Chawla and Shilpa Shetty are the star attractions in Goa. Along with the beauty ladies industrialists paraded their wealth. Blackberrys, Bentleys, Mercs and no doubt unstoppable flow of money brought IPL once again into the limelight. In this game war superstition was not staying back. Preity Zinta wore her lucky red every time she came to the bidding process. Raj Kundra sponsored his girl friend Shilpa the bid amount as valentine’s day gift. All those entered for auction were cross fingered and waiting for the luck at the end.

Defeating the popular expectation that this year 20-20 cricket show’s player hunting auction will be a flop, IPL surpassed last year’s target. In a single day it made $ 8 million worth business. Cash strap King Fisher chairman Vijay Mallaya paid $1.55m for Kevin Pietersen. This selective showering of money by Mallaya mocks his claim that King Fisher is seriously crushed by recession.

Team Chennai
Adrew Flintoff (1.55m)
Thilan Thushara (1,40,000)
George Bailey (50,000)

Bangalore Royal Challengers
Kevin Pietersen (1.55m)
Jesse Ryder (160,000)

Mumbai Indians
J.P. Duminy (950,000)
Kyle Mills (1,50,000)
Mohd Ashraful (75,000)

Kolkata Knight Riders
M. Mortaza (600,000)

Team Jaipur
Shaun Tait (375,000)
T Henderson (650,000)

Delhi Daredevils
Owalis Shah (275,000)
P. Colingwood (275,000)

Team Mohali
Ravi Bopara (450,000)
Jerome Taylor (150,000)

Team Hyderabad
Fidel Edwards (150,000)
Dwayne Smith (150,000)
All figures in US$

The spenders
Rajasthan $1.25m out of $1.87m
Chennai $1.6m out of $2m
Mumbai $1.17m out of $1.76m
Kolkata 650,000 out of $1.21m
Punjab 600,000 out of $1.4m
Hyderabad 250,000 out of $1.9m
Delhi 550,000 out of $1.45m

In the last one year of its origin IPL has glamourised and totally commercialized cricketing in the country. Adding entertainment to the game the league is spinning dollars in revenue. One has to wait and watch how far it is going to improve the cricket quality and inspire youth of India become best cricketers. IPL should focus its attention in other games to make India a formidable player in the world.