Happy Birthday Aamir Khan: Nitesh Tiwari recalls the actor’s simplicity, saying ‘there’s no hierarchy when it’s set’

Actor Aamir Khan has emerged as one of the most successful and popular actors in the Hindi film industry in his three-year career. Every time the actor announces a film, he is expected to bring something new to the table. Indianexpress.com talks to one of today ‘s best filmmakers, the national award – winning director Nitesh Tiwari who performed Dangal with Aamir Khan in 2016.

Recalling the time when Nitesh was just nurturing dreams about coming to Aamir to play Mahavir Singh Phogat for Dangal, he said, “It was a long shot, it was too ambitious for me to think that it would act in my film. I wonder why he would do it, why would he want to play a fat 52-year-old? However, I was very surprised by the way he handled the script. I just had an idea about him as an actor and I wanted him in my film, just because of the value he brings to the table. He is a great artist. ”

Excerpts from the interview:

What is the process of Aamir Khan? How does it come close to film?

I think at the outset he needs to be sure that he wants to be a part of this particular subject. And once he is sure, he will give him everything, no matter what is required of him. It leaves no stone unturned, which is the degree of condemnation it brings when it connects itself to a film. That has been my experience with Aamir. It doesn’t matter if it’s a big movie or the smallest of movies, it does its best. He works hard, and if he has to work harder on something, he will make sure that it takes a lot of time in making that perfect. He puts in every effort to achieve that. That is the extent to which it is going.

It’s a joy for a director, you don’t expect someone at that image to be so enthusiastic.

You call Aamir a director’s delight. At his image, how do you manage that?

When I met Aamir Sir to give him my script for Dangal, I didn’t for a moment feel like I was meeting such a big star. During the prep for Dangal and then the shooting, at any moment, I never felt like I was dealing with such a big star. It’s so down to earth, and it’s open to all sorts of compliments. It has no hang-ups at all. You can pull a prank on it, and it will pull a prank on you, there is no such hierarchy. Whatever rules applied to everyone in the set, also applied to him. He did not ask for any discount, without conditions. This is something very rare today. If my crew wasn’t allowed to do something on the set, it wasn’t allowed to do that either. In fact, he was once told by my first AD not to do something, and suddenly he didn’t.

For example, on our phone sets it was not allowed, and it was the same. It is usually difficult for people to stay away from their mobile phones, but he followed it. Once, he had to use his phone, so he came to my first AD to ask how he could get his phone, and was told that he needed to step out of the -set to use the phone. So he did that.

Aamir is considered a very bad actor. You talked about drawing on-set pranks. Tell us more.

He is a very cheerful man. He would pull pranks, do masti on-set. When it came to stressing Dangal, we were partying together and having a lot of fun. The best thing about it is that it doesn’t matter if you make fun of yourself. He also makes fun of himself. He candidly shares his goof-ups and then laughs like a kid (chuckles). It doesn’t matter if you do it, it’s not heavy at all. But it really is when it comes to work.

When we fired Mahavir Singh’s fight with his daughter, he was injured and could not keep going. So we had to pack from Punjab. We came back and rested a week. He thought he could get over it, but his pain did not go away. He said, ‘I can’t leave the hunt without someone for so long,’ so he took heavy-fire shots, started again and we went back to finish that special scene.

People call him Mr. Perfectionist, is he really that quick?

I would say, as well as Mr. Perfectionist, that Mr. ‘Give it’. How does perfection come about? It comes in handy giving you all something. I saw it go to the smallest detail even for the smallest view. I have a fond memory, and I can never forget how, once when we were testing the last print of Dangal in a cinema hall at 3 at night. Now, what usually happens here, do we check if the font is correct, if the color is correct, if the sound is correct or not. There is a special place where you can, if you sit, hear the sound properly, and there is a place where you sit, you can see the picture properly. In my opinion I did what I thought was very appropriate. I went and sat in the middle seat and watched the print.

Then I saw Aamir sir, he was going and sitting in every chair in every corner. He went and sat at the left corner, then the back seat. He wanted to make sure the sound was right for all the chairs and not just at those seats where we were sitting. That’s something I learned from him that day, that what it means to be concerned about everyone in the theater and not just the few who are gathered will be able to get the best view. That’s Aamir Khan, the superstar, for you.

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