Sitting serenely cross-legged and barefoot on a sofa in the living room of his leafy, hillside Mumbai apartment, Aamir Khan exudes the contented air of his hero Mahatma Gandhi. As well he might. Last week the Indian actor’s latest film 3 Idiots became the biggest grossing Bollywood movie of all time just ten days after release, smashing box-office records around the world. It cements Khan’s status as the most bankable star of his generation.
In the multiplexes of Southall, Bradford, Glasgow and beyond, crowds have braved the cold in record numbers to catch the lively coming-of-age comedy that satirises India’s elite higher education institutions. 3 Idiots remains in the UK box-office Top Ten, having already taken $70 million (£43 million) worldwide.
The film’s appeal lies in its confident call to arms — chase your dream and you can make it come true — a message that Khan, 44, has spent the past decade exemplifying. Refusing to work within standard Bollywood stereotypes, his rich oeuvre ranges from the Oscar-nominated village-versus-the-Raj cricket drama Laagan in 2001 to the remake last year of a Tamil remake of Christopher Nolan’s Memento. Formulaic cheesy romances with song and dance spectaculars have been conspicuously absent.
Khan admits that he’s pleased by the response to his latest film, while claiming to be unaffected by box-office totals. “Numbers don’t mean anything,” he says, “except as a yardstick to tell me how much the film has been seen and loved.” By any measure 3 Idiots is loved. Why has it struck a chord?
Perhaps because it shows young Indians fighting to chart their own course through life, rather than following the route laid out for them by their parents. Perhaps because it depicts a world where cross-generational families still coexist under one roof, a way of life rapidly disappearing in India’s booming cities as traditional ways are cast aside in a mad rush to embrace and ape the West. The film shows students trying to fulfil their parents’ dreams, without the freedom to pursue their own.
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“I don’t think there is freedom yet,” Khan says, “but there is a need for freedom. The youth have a desire to break out, but they haven’t broken out yet. If you speak to people my age about their jobs, 99 per cent of them will say: ‘This is what my dad wanted me to do. That’s why I got into this.’ ”
Did the young Khan face the same pressures? “My parents wanted me to be an engineer, doctor or chartered accountant, something steady,” he recalls. “At 16 I helped a friend to make a short film, doing everything from spot boy to assistant director. The experience made me feel film was where I belonged. I faced a lot of parental opposition, but I was clear.” The future star was on his way.
Rancho, Khan’s character in 3 Idiots, appealed because his mantra is do what makes you happy, without fear or compromise. “I have followed my heart,” Khan claims. “I have taken the most bizarre decisions, without being bothered about what is practical, what the market wants me to do.”
These decisions include The Rising, based on the life of Mangal Pandey, a soldier in the Indian rebellion of 1857, Rang De Basanti, which caused controversy by tackling government corruption as the root cause of a tragic air force plane crash, and Khan’s directorial debut, Taare Zameen Par, depicting the life of an eight-year-old dyslexic boy whose future is turned around by a sympathetic teacher. Not exactly traditional mainstream Bollywood fare, but all big box-office successes.
Buoyed by the success of 3 Idiots, 2010 is shaping up to be Khan’s annus mirabilis as a producer, with three films from his company being prepared for release. Just as George Clooney uses his big cheques to make small films he cares deeply about, these are films close to Khan’s heart.
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Next week he will fly to the Sundance Film Festival — wearing his producer’s hat — for the premiere of the black comedy Peepli Live, the first Indian film to show in competition. Written and directed by the former journalist Anusha Rizvi, with a cast of largely first-time actors, it is billed as a funny yet heart-wrenching satire on Indian village life, local politics and media.
Later this year we will see Delhi Belly, a Lock Stock-esque English-language comedy caper following the adventures of three well-to-do Delhi boys out of their depth in the criminal underworld.
Finally, Khan hopes to complete post-production on the observational slice-of-life ensemble drama Dhobi Ghaat, written and directed by his wife Kiran Rao, in time to show the film at Cannes.
What advice does Bollywood’s biggest star offer young film-makers keen to follow their dreams? “Don’t try and second-guess the audience, don’t try and make a successful film. Make what your heart says. Tell a story you want to tell, and be honest to that. Don’t comprise.”
The unruffled Khan belies the stereotype of the prima donna Bollywood star. In a bewildering, beguiling country where so much is rushed confusion, Khan is a beacon of calm rationality. “Follow your dreams,” he says— by following his own, irrespective of parental or studio urgings, he has become India’s biggest star.
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3 Idiots is on general release