In this episode of NDTV Dialogues, a conversation with the veteran Bollywood star actor, director and film producer, Aamir Khan.
NDTV: Hello and welcome to The NDTV Dialogues, a conversation of ideas. This episode, that conversation with Aamir Khan. Aamir Khan, thank you very much for joining me on The NDTV Dialogues. You've just had a milestone birthday, at fifty many people look back and if you had to look back at the young man who entered the film industry with Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, what advice would you give that young man?
Aamir Khan: What advice will I give him? Well, I don't know, I'm not much of a person for giving advice. I think its fun to discover and learn on your own. I think I would just tell that young person that you know, do what you believe in and don't compromise with what your dreams are. If you need to compromise to achieve your dream that's okay but don't compromise with the dream itself. And believe in yourself, believe in your dreams, do what your heart says, that's all I would tell him.
NDTV: Did you think in that journey, a journey with ups and downs but many many successes on the way that you would be at a stage now where you perhaps look at more than just acting because you in a sense you have evolved as much more of an activist some would say, you speak passionately on issues which you feel about, which are beyond movies, is that a role you are more comfortable in today?
Aamir Khan: No, actually I don't see myself as an activist. I understand that people with me doing 'Satyameva Jayate' for example, they will feel that I'm being an activist but I'm not. Actually I'm not because I think an activist as I see it as a person, who is very very, takes up one issue and remains with that one issue for his entire life. I'm not doing that. What I am doing is I understand as a creative person, I need not stop at just entertaining people. I can take that one step further which is to try and affect people's minds and how they think and how they look at things. I understand that I'm able to connect with people, I have an emotional bonding with people, my strength lies in my ability to tell stories and to touch people's hearts and to move them. So I'm trying to use that skill. My attempt is to use that skill in trying to look at problems that face us as a society and see if I can address those.
NDTV: Is is difficult then to move on? A topic like female foeticide or whether you are talking about corruption in politics, is it difficult to move on then from week to week, do these issues
Aamir Khan: Move on from?
NDTV: Do these issues stay with you? Like
Aamir Khan: Oh they do. Yeah yeah. Of course they do.
NDTV: So does that influence your role in the choices of movies, how does it change you?
Aamir Khan: Well, I guess it has changed me in many more ways than I understand myself. To begin with, I've become much more understanding, much more sensitive, a lot more patient and absorbing
NDTV: But in your choices of movies as well? Do you find that it has changed you at all in that?
Aamir Khan: Not really. You know for me my choices of movies have always been personal expressions of what I'm feeling then and there at that time, when I'm reading a script or I'm listening to a script. It's my personal reaction to that and never have I ever selected scripts based on what message the film is giving. That's not how I select my scripts. I'm not like okay now which message should I give or here is a film with a message, let me do it. For me the driving emotion of selecting a film is that I just love that story. It may give a message, it may not give a message, that's fine. I just loved it. For example when I do a film like Delhi Belly, I find it really funny. It's a really funny film. It doesn't have any message as such, it's just a really funny film. It's very irreverent, it's got great humour, great characters, great lines, great one liners. I just love it for what it is. So I want to produce it. So the films don't have to have a message. If they do have one, great.
NDTV: It's interesting you brought that up because many of course use the Delhi Belly parallel with AIB roast and everybody said oh how could you criticize AIB roast when you made a film like Delhi Belly?
Aamir Khan: I don't know how far that is a true statement. I can criticize anything. Just because I made Delhi Belly doesn't mean, So it's got nothing to do with it. You can disagree with my criticism that's fine, that's totally fine, but I can have an opinion on things. Just because I've made a comedy like 'Andaz Apna Apna' doesn't mean I can't criticize comedies thereafter. Once you've made a comedy, you can never criticize comedy, that logic doesn't make sense to me. So I do films that excite me. Sometimes I see stuff which doesn't excite me, in the case of AIB roast in fact it was actually an emotional response because, I've spoken about it before so I don't want to go in details but there were people who had signed up for the roast and then there were people who had not signed up for the roast. And the people who had not signed up for the roast were, things were said about them which affected me badly and they were about people whom I know very closely. So I got upset by that and I felt that it is unfair that a person who has not signed up for the roast, you are insulting publicly in front of so many people. That person is not there to protect himself or herself, that's wrong. You want to do that to people who have signed up, that's fine. That's what I was really upset about.
NDTV: Do you find yourself a misfit sometimes now because you said every film of mine does not have to have a message but there is a certain expectation that Aamir Khan is there, there must be a message, or he has taken a film which will be, maybe not a cause but a film which will be slightly more serious than maybe a typical, what's seen as a blockbuster or a Salman Khan or a Shah Rukh Khan kind of movie or anyone else also?
Aamir Khan: I don't think so. I don't think the people really know what to expect from me. Quite honestly.
NDTV: That's true.
Aamir Khan: Because I don't know what to expect from myself. Immediately after 'Taare Zameen Par', the film I did after that was 'Ghajini'. I mean two films can't be more poles apart. I did 'Dhoom 3' which is totally an out and out entertainer, bike chases and stuff like that and then I did PK which is again totally different. So I don't think people know what to expect from me quite honestly and that's because I haven't followed any pattern. I really haven't followed a pattern. I've just gone from one script that excites me to another. And certainly what I get attracted to would be because of who I am. So I would get attracted to 'TaareZameen Par' which other people perhaps may not. So the kind of person I am, things that affect me, would also end up becoming somewhere a part of my decision making because that's what excites me, that's what attracts me.
NDTV: I mentioned Shah Rukh and Salman Khan, of course interestingly the Khans are the dominant trio in the film industry all three of you turned fifty this year. So there is an interesting transition period with the new generation of actors coming but all three of you very much still around. How do you see the three of you perhaps in your roles in the industry now because you all are very much still leading men?
Aamir Khan: Its quite amazing. Sometimes I think back and wonder how we've lasted so long. I mean Shah Rukh and Salman I can still understand because for me they are the stars, the way they look, the way they dress, the way they are, the way they walk into a room, they are very charming.
NDTV: You had the crowds mob you when you walked in this room as well.
Aamir Khan: But, what I am trying to say is that I have actually done things very differently from the two of them. Our choices are quite different, what attracts Salman and Shah Rukh are I think quite different from what attracts me. So in that sense we are quite different but I think we are fortunate to have had the kind of success that we've had. It's not usual, it's not usual for actors to have such a long innings, and the three of us have been around for twenty five years now I think, It's rather unusual, I'm very grateful for that. I'm very grateful for the fact that I could be around for so long and do the kind of work that I believe in.
NDTV: We know it's different but when you have the three of you, what would you is the one thing that you find common amongst the three of you besides the surname?
Aamir Khan: Actually apart from the surname and the year that we were born in, we were born in 65, other than that there is very little common between the three of us and the fact that all three of us are popular, fairly popular in our own ways, I think other than these three things, there is probably very little in common but that's also the charm, I think Salman brings his own energy to himself, to the work he does and so does Shah Rukh and I find that when I meet them, I'm quite mesmerized by them. They are very charming people.
NDTV: So I'll also have to get them and ask them what they say about Aamir Khan and his intensity and passion as well but I mentioned of course the same surname and its weird that at a time when the three of you are really adored across India, that you have people come up and say why are the Khans ruling Bollywood. Or you have some fringe person somewhere, and it'll become publicity because they are talking about you, they are saying that tear up their posters or they propagate love jihad etc. You've seen that they suddenly talk about this. Does it impact you at all or do you wonder where this is coming from?
Aamir Khan: No it doesn't impact me. I don't think it impacts Salman or Shah Rukh either because the fact of the matter is that we are popular because people love us. And we try and do the best work that we can and I don't think that the people who love us, love us because of our religion or because of any such thing. They like us because they connect with something they see on screen which is intangible. Why does a person become a star? I don't know. I don't know why people like me, I have no idea. Why did I become a star and not the next person? Why knows? So I think creativity goes above all of that, when you see a film that you like, it can be from a different language, it could be a Japanese film or a Chinese film. The community the person comes from, the culture the person comes from, the language, can be totally different. And you can still fall in love with that person. It happens to all of us as audiences of cinema. So these ekka dukka people who come up and say, you know in life all kinds of people say all kinds of things. I don't feel the necessity to respond to that. I really don't feel that there is any necessity to respond to that. If people don't want to see us, they won't see our films. Nobody needs to make a proclamation for that.
NDTV: You don't find that there has been any, when an issue of love jihad comes up, you don't think that there is something you need to comment on or just perhaps to speak out and make your point clear?
Aamir Khan: Now, that is totally different, speaking about an issue is totally different.
NDTV: But when it comes up to the reference to you or Shah Rukh, when it comes up in reference to either of you.
Aamir Khan: Well I think that I have never held back on speaking on issues, I've never held back from speaking on issues.
NDTV: The opposite.
Aamir Khan: Yeah and it got me into trouble most of the time but I think that is what democracy is all about. You should be free to air what to feel and sometimes you can be wrong also. Sometimes I may change my mind, sometimes I may feel that what I have said was not right, we change, we grow as people, only the people who are so fixed in their thinking that they never change is just the people that don't grow actually. I am even open to changing my own mind as you go long in life. And I feel everyone has the right to their opinion and I don't think that a person's opinion will actually change the way I feel. If one person says that the three Khans are XYZ and we should not watch their films that is that one person's opinion. I respect that person's opinion. But I don't think that the rest of the country is going to change because of that, we know people are intelligent they have their own feeling about things, and I don't think they are so easily swayed and if they are then you know, that is the truth of the matter.
NDTV: No, I think in fact it is a positive sign of how much the three of you are celebrated and religion has been so irrelevant in the Hindi film industry.
Aamir Khan: In fact I would say that in a country like India where 80% of the population is of one community and the three actors who are very popular in that time, of course many other actors were also popular, happen to be from another community, that speaks a lot, for our country, our culture, for how we are as people that speaks a lot I think and I don't think that at least to me as a person growing up in India that has not been a part of my, in the society I come from or in the surroundings where I come from it is not that something that I am even aware of, I went to school which had kids of all communities and languages. And my parents brought me in a way that we celebrated all the various festivals of different communities and religions in our own home.
NDTV: I think that is the India of course you celebrate, but don't you feel sometimes I mean again this has been an issue when Shah Rukh Khan had written a column, an article two years ago where he talked about being an Indian Muslim, do you think defining you as that in a sense takes away from the person you are, or do you think when the name or the religion gets attached, how do you feel about it?
Aamir Khan: You know, I look at myself as a human being. Now you can start putting labels on me, you can call me an Indian because even India is a country which has been demarcated by human beings. I don't think that the earth itself had planned that or the person who has made all of us, who makes everything, nature makes us work had not made these demarcations, we have made these demarcations. Who is an Indian, who is Japanese - I personally see all of us as human beings. So I hesitate to put any label on myself.
NDTV: There has been a lot of controversy recently about the issue of intolerance, about freedom of expression, freedom of speech you just had the Supreme court strike down the Section 66A, do you think that Indian is moving towards a more tolerant open society or do you find that there is also in a way some kind of, I won't use the word censorship but some kind of carefulness about which areas or which parts to tread or not, whether it is on making movies, whether it is on what you can express. How do you see the India of today?
Aamir Khan: I think, you know, you see all kind of things, which is the beauty of India actually, you see all sides of everything in India, so you see. let us take PK for example PK is a film which is on a very sensitive topic, religion is a very sensitive topic to all Indians, irrespective of what religion they come from and a film like PK which is about this very sensitive topic goes on become the biggest success by leaps and bounds compared to the previous success that tells you that India as a country, the people of India are really open to new thoughts, to new ideas or actually it is not a new thought, it is a thought that a lot of people before have also conveyed, Kabir has also said it so often and the film is also saying what Kabir has said many times. A number of great thinkers have said similar things so it is not a new thought actually but it is being said after a long time, at least on a public platform and the fact that people in such large number taken to the film indicates that India is actually very tolerant and is open and is listening, a lot depends on your attitude and how you are saying something, If I am saying something to hurt you, you will get hurt. If I am saying that with an open heart where I am myself searching , it will also help you to look at it, you may still agree, you may disagree, but it may not hurt you but at the same time there were also groups which protested against the film, and I respect their feelings also, because each one of us genuinely feels those things so those few people who know, who tried to stop the screening of the film and who were upset with the film, I respect their feelings, it is not that I don't. I just feel that you don't take law into your own hands, you know, there is a process to follow, as film makers of certification, once that is done, you can say I don't like this film you can tell other people not to watch it, you can WhatsApp it and say not to watch the film. But purposely creating a ruckus, taking law into your hands is not right I feel that is where you have to draw lines, So in censorship this is what I feel, you can be against content, you can say I don't like this content, I don't agree with at all or it upsets me, you can advise other people not to watch it. Today is the time of social media where you can reach out to many people and express your feelings but to physically stop something is not right but as I was saying earlier that I feel that people are open, you asked me a question, I know are Indians tolerant? I think and that is our strength, our strength is, see the day we stop looking inward is the day we stop growing. The ability to look at yourself and wonder is this right or wrong is a fantastic quality and this is the quality that Indians should never lose and we should not feel scared, see criticism should never scare, like when somebody criticizes my film I don't get scared, I feel that is a very welcome thing, I wan to hear the person's think, i may still disagree with the person but I am very keen to know what is that you don't like about my film, I want to know, it only makes me better.
NDTV: But what if somebody criticizes you personally because a lot of that is flying around especially on social media?
Aamir Khan: You know social media
NDTV: It should be called anti-social media sometimes
Aamir Khan: Sometimes it looks like anti-social media. See, social media is a place where we all have to understand one thing, you can have your identity hidden, your name is not known, who you are is not known; it is like standing in the crowd and throwing a stone on somebody. So anyone can do that, so the format is such that anyone can say anything and get away with it because nobody knows who you are, so it has to be taken with that pinch of salt, it is a great platform to understand trends also, when lot of people are saying something you understand what people are saying but you have to understand that this is the content of something of value and this is some person shouting and ranting away which I need to ignore.
NDTV: Like strenuous noise
Aamir Khan: Yea. You should be able to filter that.
NDTV: I said that this is a conversation of ideas, what is your idea of India today, or the society around you today because too often it the associate political party, the UPA has one idea of India, the NDA has another idea of India what for you is the Indian who is the role model of many, What is your idea of India?
Aamir Khan: I think for me, my idea of India is what the first page of the constitution says you know the preamble of the constitution, that I think holds my idea of India. An India, a society where there is liberty, there is freedom, there is security, there is equality, there is justice for all, there is fraternity, there is brotherhood you know, that is the kind of India I look for, that is my idea of India where we care for each other, we care for people who are less privileged which is what I was saying today at FICCI Frames I was trying to convey something that the film industry or the creative field, not just the film industry, I think the media, news channels or the television channels films, any creative person what is my contribution Is it just to entertain you or is it just to inform you or can it be larger than that and I feel it can be larger, I feel here is an opportunity for us, for this generation and it is up to us whether we want to take this opportunity or not, we can let it go also and that opportunity is what, you see, how do you achieve what we dream of, all of us dream in our hearts what India can be you know, a place which is happy, a place which is prosperous, a place which is safe, how do you achieve that. Do you achieve it by laws, can you achieve by forcing people, can I force a person to follow a traffic signal. I can't, he will constantly breaking it, that red light is not going to stop me, it see it every time, I see it every day so what is going to stop that. You know, we can make highways, we can invest in infrastructure but when are we going to invest in the software which is human beings and the way we think because I can make hardware, I can make a highway which is four lane but I still have a truck coming up on my side.
NDTV: Do your colleagues listen to you when you talk to them about nation building in Bollywood while they make movies?
Aamir Khan: They listen but what I am saying is , you have to do it , I am not saying ,there should be rule that everyone has do it , no , I am just saying be aware of that , be aware that you can do that , and if you do that , then you will be actually you know contributing a lot , towards , because ultimately for the nation to change , I went to Japan recently , and where ever we went , you know , whether in the hotel , or a taxi , or any restaurant , when we tried to tip the people who served us they didn't take a tip , they refused it , each and every place , they said we've already been paid , for the work we are doing ,it showed their self-respect ,it showed that they respected what they were doing and they wanted to be respected. Now imagine a society where people don't take a tip , they feel they have got their money , they don't want anything more than that , that's the dignity they have ,in themselves , imagine that kind of society , a society that doesn't take tips , how will they take bribes you tell me ?
NDTV: Now that's something you've talked about a lot.
Aamir Khan: Imagine, they don't take tips why will they take bribes? Imagine a generation 20 years from now , which has got really high integrity , which doesn't indulge in corruption , all these crores , all these 1000 crore scams we hear of , stop happening , imagine that society , it's a bit of a dream I am painting now , imagine it for 2 seconds , would we like that , would we like to reach there, if we would then the way to reach there , is through creative people , creative people have to bring about a change in people's hearts and especially children , we have to encourage them to be more caring , encourage them to be more loving ,
NDTV: And you've got a young baby in the house right now so the focus is so much on children, but it's interesting , because people tend to say that this is the politicians problem or this is the governments problem, you had met Prime Minister Modi recently and talked about issues raised in 'Satyamev Jayate'
Aamir Khan: It was very hopeful, I think like everyone else, I too have a lot of hopes from the Prime Minister, from the present government , they are majority in the Lok Sabha , and we are hoping that they deliver in all the promises they have made , and I do believe that we should give them that opportunity and we should you know , show the trust and faith in them ,
NDTV: In Maharastra, the beef ban which has come recently, there's been a lot of criticism of the beef ban , demonstrations against it , people are saying it will affect their livelihood , the recent stoning of a church there's been very strong statements made by the Archbishop of Bombay, etc. , of how they are feeling , of how the minorities are feeling threatened, are these issues that concern you ?
Aamir Khan: You know , I think in any society if the minority is being threatened and beef ban is slightly more complex an issue than just minorities being threatened , so they are two separate issues , whenever minorities are threatened or anyone is threatened , it could be a majority person who is threatened, that is very unfortunate, and that time we certainly do look , towards our leaders towards people who we have selected , and elected our representatives , to take a strong and firm action, but when we see silence from the people who we have selected in situations like this , that is disappointing , that is worrying , that makes me feel hmm what is this person doing , I selected this person and he is not really stepping in when he should , he can be a majority community person minority community person , anyone ,when there is some kind of violence being used ,some kind of threat being used we expect the state to move and we want them to move at that time , we want them to move strongly and firmly , so it doesn't matter who it is , I expect that as a citizen , the beef ban is a much more complicated issue , you know , it's got to do with the emotional feelings of a whole lot of people , on the one side , on the other side it's got to do with other people who feel differently , who have a business that they are running , who have certain lifestyle that they are following , it's a more complicated issue , I am not sure , what the right solution for that is ,in all fairness it's a very complicated issue and therefore it's got to be handled in that delicate way as well.
NDTV: Okay, Aamir, I have interviewed many times of the year , this is the healthiest I have ever seen you , why is that ?
Aamir Khan: No not healthy, I am extremely unhealthy , I am 90 kilos , My ideal weight is around 65-67
NDTV: And in Ghajini how much were you?
Aamir Khan: In Ghajini I was 67-68 , even in Three Idiots I was 68 is my ideal weight , you know muscles also weighs a little more.
NDTV: Why are you 90 kilos?
Aamir Khan: I am getting ready for a role , I am playing ex - wrestler , father of two daughters , father of four daughters , two of whom are fully grown , in their twenties , 18-20 , so I am trying to put on weight so that I can look older , my hair you know by the time we start shooting will be salt and pepper , and my beard as well , so I am trying to age myself.
NDTV: From a college student where you became much younger to now you are ageing yourself ,
Aamir Khan: As an actor that's the fun part of it , you get to play different characters, and if you really want to you can dive in and do it to the full , that's the challenge for me as an actor to look a different human being, every time you see me in the film I should appear as a different human being , so hopefully that will happen in the Dangal, I feel very unhealthy, you know my breathing has changed , I feel funny when I look at myself , I am so fat.
NDTV: But he makes his daughters wrestlers so that's a great message, right there , and it's a real life story in a sense so it's happening , so excellent . Aamir of course you are the leading man , but does it bother to you that the leading ladies get younger and younger why is it , in Bollywood that is one age barrier that doesn't break
Aamir Khan: My leading ladies don't get younger, do they?
NDTV: Anushka must be in her twenties
Aamir Khan: No Anushka, oh yeah yeah, the thing is that in PK I am a alien, so she is not playing my love interest or anything , I mean , and we don't really know what the alien's age is, it must be 103 or something but I know what you are saying ,
NDTV: But heroes don't romance women of their age
Aamir Khan: I know what you are saying , that actors usually have a longer shelf life , if you can put it that way
NDTV: You should buck that trend higher you know and, have heroines similar age is to you
Aamir Khan: Actually I don't think that way, in the films that I have produced or the films that I have been a part of, we don't really think that way, the person who is appropriate for the part is selected I don't think it's got to do anything with age, if an older person is required you get an older person , I mean I am putting on weight and looking fat and strange , I wouldn't have done that if I had felt differently ,
NDTV: So no insecurity also, I think the one sign is also that there are no insecurities
Aamir Khan: For me? Oh I am very insecure.
NDTV: Does the box office results still worry you, are you still tense
Aamir Khan: I am extremely insecure , see I have been successful for some time now , so people feel I am not , they feel that I am confident or secure ,am not really frightened because each time , actually I am one of the few actors who really takes a lot of risks each time, even a film like 'PK' for example, it's a very risky project to do, or a film like 'Taare Zameen Par' or 'Lagaan', these are very unusual films , now I am becoming fat and old, I don't know how people are going to react to it, but I just love the story so I just want to do it , am I scared ? of course I am, people will stop liking me, that thought comes to me all the time every time I look at myself in the mirror I feel this is the end of me.
NDTV: No. Three decades and still going strong.
Aamir Khan: No what I am saying is that am I insecure , yes I am , I go through doubts like everyone else , through fears , I got through worrying but the good thing is that it doesn't stop me from doing what I want to I get scared but I still do what I feel like doing and I do it with all my heart , I feel agar fail hona hai naa toh do it fully and fail no problem , adha adha mat karo , don't be hesitant don't get run out go for the shot
NDTV: You've always said you won't to enter active politics, but do you think , you've got rights to change your opinions , you think you will ever enter active politics?
Aamir Khan: No I don't think I will enter active politics and the reason for that is that I really feel I can contribute a lot more towards society towards people towards you know things around me from where I am , I can contribute a lot more from here ,
NDTV: How do you deal with the Bollywood politics then?
Aamir Khan: I am not a part of Bollywood politics , I am the last person to know what is happening in Bollywood, usually I am so lost in my own world that I am the last person to know, there is a film in which Paresh Rawal does a role, Judaai I think it's called, some film, I forget the name in which he has got a question mark on his forehead and he is always asking what happened
NDTV: He's an MP now.
Aamir Khan: Karan jokes that I am like Paresh Rawal of that film of that character; he just doesn't know what is happening.
NDTV: As we end Aamir, as I have already said it is nearly three decades in the industry, fifty a milestone year for you. You think your biggest achievement in these years and the biggest mistake you have perhaps made?
Aamir Khan: I think my biggest achievement, okay, perhaps I think achievement is perhaps the wrong word, I don't look at things as achievement, I think most satisfying thing for me has been Satyamev Jayate, this experience of these five years researching topics, understanding how India is, meeting people from different parts from different corners, small villages has been a very enriching journey, so I think that has been very satisfying for me. What was your other part of the question?
NDTV: What is your biggest mistake, or may be when you look back your biggest disappointment that I will never do that again. If there is none, that is great.
Aamir Khan: No, no. I have made many mistakes, don't mistake that but I am not sure that I don't want to make mistakes. I think mistakes a very much a part of me,you know everything that I have done which I have not been happy with later on or sometimes even while doing it, are all part of me, that is me, that is who I am and I not sure whether I want to change that also you know, your mistakes are what you learn from the most, so I am not that I want to discard them, I am where I am not only because of my success but also because of my failures and my mistakes, they have been the things that have taught me the most. I don't know which should be my biggest one, there are so many.
NDTV: Aamir Khan I think keep entertaining us, keep communicating and I think you are a wonderful role model. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you.