Aamir Khan is completing an interview run at his Santa Cruise Office in Mumbai. He looks animated like some of his characters. “I’m going down?” He reshuffles a lift to his colleagues. “I’m coming again? Um-Hum.” Khan is 60 years old, not more than 48, and itching with enthusiasm for his latest release. This is not the man I faced seven years ago, during release India’s thugsClami with unspent an unstable product about an unstable product. Or the man who disappeared behind the beard to play Tom Hax, loudly and disappointing, inside Lal Singh Chafdha.
In interviews and podcasts, Khan is open about the failure of these two films. His latest, Sitare land crossFinds him on a solar foot. Like a Meera Highlights Reel, trailer connects the best elements of Khan’s filmography: sports, humor, team assembly, social uplift. Directed by RS Prasanna, the film is a remake of the Spanish drama ChampionsIt follows a Mouthi, Nockhead Basketball Coach, in charge of a team of intellectual disabled players.
Team on the set of Aamir Khan and ‘Sitare Zameen Paar’
“The film entered my bloodstream,” says Khan. Here, he speaks of his co-stars, trolling and working with Miyama of negativity that reflects his recent release, and his expectations for dramatic business in India.
You indicated on a break after ‘Lal Singh Chafdha’. Nevertheless, here you are with ‘Sitare Zameen Paar’, a film in two years of development …
Aamir Khan: When a film or an idea inspires me, I just have to make it. My director, RS Prasanna, brought Spanish film Champions (2018) for me. When I saw it, I moved through it very much. This has a profound impact on me. I also felt that this is an ideal sequel Taare Zameen ParIn that film, this teacher, Nikumb, is an alleged neuro-specific person who helps the child with dyslexia. In this film, ten neuro-tipical people are helping coaches, Gulshan. I feel Citare The discourse of the first film takes ten steps forward, especially in our country where people need to be sensitive to the subject of neurodivargins.
Like ‘Lal Singh’, the film has been subject to online trolling. Are you nervous about release?
AK: I don’t think trolling affects the box-office performance of a film. no way. When a film is good, no troll in the world can stop it. And if a film is bad, no producer in the world can work. You can assume that Lal Singh Chadhara Did not work due to trolling. This is not true. If, in place of that film, 3 Idiots Or Riot Was released, and was just trolled as it was, it would still have become a superhit. Lal Singh Chadhara Not as well as a film. It could not touch the heart of the audience. So it failed.
… When I read comments on YouTube, I always am interested in what the real audience is saying. If someone is writing, ‘boycott!’ Or ‘Go to Pakistan’, I can immediately tell that they are trolls. Their reactions do not affect me.
Like your character, Gulshan, what did you learn from your ten co-stars?
AK: They are all between the ages of 18-42. The oldest sage Shahani, who won gold and silver medals in swimming for India at the Special Olympic World Games in 1999. What I learned from him is important to be happy. If a person has a high IQ of 195, but they are always worried and serious, then what is the matter? I have worked with neuro-specific people for the last 35 years. Usually, on a film set, ego clashes and quarrels occur. This never happened CitareWhen these ten people were on the set, the entire energy became bright. They were always smiling, hugging and spreading good cheers. His presence was so pure and innocent that no one raised his voice.
Gully-Oop: Actor of ‘Sitare Zameen Paar’
What is the streaming scheme for ‘Sitare Zameen Par’? You recently spoke on small dramatic windows that adversely affect the trade.
AK: I have received many proposals and proposals and I have not told them all. I am a believer in cinema and dramatic experience. Whatever I am today, it is due to theaters. I am loyal to that format. Perhaps I am making a mistake by not selling OTT Rights upfronts, because today most Hindi filmmakers are doing today. In today’s era, it cannot be green until a film is sold for streaming. I am the only person who is holding out. Perhaps I will suffer a big financial loss as a result. But we will see. My mission, currently, is to revive the dramatic business in India, which has been on a steady decline.
Exhibitors, especially the owners of multiplexes, point to the cost of high real estate to justify vertical pricing. How do you solve it?
AK: I am actively working towards making policies and coming up with ideas that can create the theater which are affordable. Where ticket pricing can be moderated. In India, we have 9,000–10,000 screens for a population of 1.4 billion. In contrast, China has 90,000–95,000 screens while the US has 35,000 screens. There are many districts in India which do not have a single theater. In a city like Mumbai or New Delhi, the land costs a lot, so theaters will have to pay heavy fare. You cannot blame them. But what about the rest of the country? Therefore, we need to make more economical theater across the country.
You are doing an action film with Lokesh Kanagarj. But it will not start by next year. Why not attack a trend while getting hot?
AK, BuddyI am not able to think so. When i decided to do Sitare land crosses, Those who are close to me told me not to remake another later Lal Singh ChadharaEveryone advised me to do an action film instead. This is the taste of the season. But I wanted to tell this story. It is a humorous film with drama at his center like a Rajkumar Hirani film.
Interestingly when i did GhajiniIn 2008, the opposite happened. I was told that action films had not worked for the last five years. It was a wrong time to take action. So my films have always been released in odd times, because I do not follow the industry’s matrix. I follow my heart. And I have full faith in my audience. If I have made a good film, they will come and watch.
Sitare land released in theaters on 20 June
Published – June 09, 2025 03:37 pm IST