Aamir is also reuniting with PK Director Rajkumar Hirani for a biopic on Dadasaheb Phalke, the Father of Indian Cinema.
IMAGE: Aamir Khan. Photograph: Kind courtesy Kiran Rao/Instagram
Aamir Khan is all set to do a superhero film!
He will team up with Tamil Director Lokesh Kanagaraj, and he confirms the news.
‘Lokesh and I are working on a film, it is a superhero film. It is a big-scale action film and it will start next year, second half,’ Aamir says.
Kanagaraj is known for his action-packed and commercially successful films like the Kamal Haasan starrer Vikram, the Vijay starrers Leo and Master and the Karthi starrer Kaithi.
Aamir dismissed reports about a possible sequel to his 2014 comedy drama PK. Instead, he said he is reuniting with PK Director Rajkumar Hirani for a biopic on Dadasaheb Phalke, the Father of Indian Cinema.
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IMAGE: Aamir Khan in PK.
Aamir said his most ambitious project is the Mahabharata but he refused to divulge details.
“Mahabharata has been my dream for the last 25 years. It is not a film. When you are making the Mahabharata, you are not making a film, you’re surrendering. I’m trying, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to fulfil my dream. Till the time I don’t make a basic foundation, I won’t be able to answer (any question). All I know is I’m going to start work on it,” he says.
Which of his films have the potential for sequels?
“A sequel can be made to 3 Idiots with those three characters (played by R Madhavan, Sharman Joshi and Aamir), who meet later (in life). A sequel can also be made to Dil Chahta Hai and Sarfarosh.
“Like, in Dil Chahta Hai, we can explore the mid-life crisis of the three boys (played by Akshaye Khanna, Saif Ali Khan and Aamir), and they are all seeking therapy.”
IMAGE: Aamir Khan in Sitaare Zameen Par.
Aamir, whose next film Sitaare Zameen Par will release on June 20, has been trolled for making a remake of the Spanish movie Campeones.
“Remakes are a new canvas for me, will do them all my life,” he defends his decision.
The star and filmmaker said he has done over 10 remakes and they have all been superhits, except for Laal Singh Chaddha.
“Like Ghajini or if I’ve to start from the beginning of my career, then Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, which is a remake of Romeo And Juliet. So I have never had a problem with remakes because for me, it is a new canvas.
“I believe in remakes and will do them all my life. Whenever I get a good remake, I will do it. Why shouldn’t I? If you don’t want to see it, don’t.”
IMAGE: Genelia Deshmukh and Aamir Khan in Sitaare Zameen Par.
Why is Shakespeare respected so much even today, Aamir wondered, about the playwright whose work has been endlessly adapted in cinema, theatre and other art forms.
“He is gone, write your own play. Why are you doing Hamlet again? Why do you want to say, ‘To be or not to be’? The chatter about remakes, I don’t know where it came from. Now suddenly, some trolls have launched it.
“Some of our biggest hits have been remakes. If cut and paste is so easy, then you do it. But it’s not a cut and paste thing, you’ve to put your life into it,” he says.
Aamir adds that he’s not the only one doing remakes. Many film folk, including the hit screenwriting team of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar have adapted stories in their career.
“I’ve seen this beautiful film, which is made in Spanish. Are you going to watch a Spanish film? I don’t think you have seen a Spanish film in India. You may have seen one or two but by and large, we don’t watch them,” he feels.
IMAGE: Aamir Khan in Sitaare Zameen Par.
Spanish audiences liked Campeones (Champions in its Hollywood version) and understood its message about neurodivergence, which refers to differences in mental or neurological functioning from what is typically considered the norm. That is what he wants to achieve with Sitaare Zameen Par.
“We should also be sensitised. We should also move forward. That topic of neurodivergence should become important for us too. In our country too, there should be a public discourse on it: What is neurotypical and how should we behave? This is a very important topic for India. I’m very clear I have done the right thing.”
R S Prasanna’s Sitaare Zameen Par features Aamir as Gulshan, an assistant coach of a basketball team. After being fired from his job, he is ordered to either go to jail or do 90 days of community service by becoming the coach of a team of specially-abled basketball players.
IMAGE: Aamir Khan in Sitaare Zameen Par.
The movie, which releases June 20, comes three years after Laal Singh Chaddha that tanked at the box office when it was released in theatres in August 2022.
At the time, the movie faced calls for boycott on social media with hashtags #boycottlaalsinghchaddha and #boycottbollywood trending on X.
‘You work so hard, and then a person is saying something wrong just because of negativity. He has neither seen the film nor does he know about the topic. Whatever you say, that person will speak negatively. That is the meaning of trolling,’ he says.
But the actor dismissed the notion that online trolling has an effect on a movie’s box office performance.
‘People think Laal Singh Chadha didn’t work because of trolling. They are wrong. Imagine if the same trolling was there during 3 Idiots, what do you think would have happened? Then the trolling doesn’t work. Why? Because the film is good.’
IMAGE: Kareena Kapoor and Aamir Khan in Laal Singh Chaddha.
‘Laal Singh Chaddha couldn’t touch the hearts of people. If Dangal had released in its place, it would have been a superhit. So trolling didn’t make a difference. The film was weak, so it couldn’t sustain. If the film was good, it would have gone up. I’m not disturbed by trolling.
‘I want to listen to the real audience. They see your work and either like it or don’t. They will say it from their heart. So I’m bothered by the reactions of the real audience for whom I make films. I don’t care about trolls.’
