Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan, featuring Aamir Khan and Garcy Singh, is one of those films that represent not just Hindi cinema but the whole of India worldwide. The film that completes 20 years today, was only the third film to ever receive an Oscar nod in The Best Foreign Language Film category at the prestigious award ceremony.
While remembering this astounding achievement of Lagaan completing 20 years, Aamir asserts that even though it became a cult film over the years, while making it, they had no idea. “We loved the story and were emotionally invested in it but we didn’t know about the huge success that it would become, that even after 20 years people would be talking about it. My uncle Nasir Hussain sahab used to say, “bahut hi behtareen film, aap banate nahi, khud ban jaati hai.” I think Lagaan was one such film where things fell into the right place,” he insists. Also read: 5 Unknown Facts About Lagaan: Ashutosh Gowarikar Wanted Abhishek Bachchan To Play Aamir Khan's Part, First Choice For Lead Heroine Was Rani Mukerji And More
Aamir goes on to assert that one of the biggest reasons behind the film’s success is his ex-wife Reena Dutta. “She was the producer but had no idea about cinema until then. Even after being married to me, she had no interest in films. But when I requested her for help and told her that I could only depend on her and she could learn on the go, she said yes and went on to learn everything. She was very sporting and met Subhash Ghai and Manmohan Desai, from whom she learnt the whole lab process. She met producers, directors and technicians on her own and then produced the film like a veteran. I told her I won’t teach her anything and she had to learn everything on her own. I still wonder how she did that,” he smiles. Also read: 20 Years Of Gadar And Lagaan: Which Of These Films Was Bigger? Trade Analysts Speak
Every film has it’s struggles and for Aamir it was to arrange a large number of people as spectators for the final cricket match in the film, in Kutch where they were shooting. “Kutch’s area is wide but the population there is very small. While shooting for the final match, I had asked for 5000 people as spectators and I felt that would be enough. Then, I heard rumbling from the production that they were unable to find 5000 people. So, I called an emergency meeting after pack up one day to ask what was happening,” he shares.
Aamir goes on to narrate how things took a turn multiple times during that meeting. “Rao sahab (Kiran Rao, who was an assistant director on the film) told me that they could find only up to 2000-3000 people. I told them that I was glad we were having this conversation as I had changed my mind and now wanted to have 10000 spectators indeed,” he informs, sharing that his announcement stunned everyone. “They went white in the face and insisted that it was next to impossible to find so many people as all villages were far away from each other and just to invite all of them would take a lot of time.”
Then a local man, named Danabai, who had made the villages used in the films, came to their rescue. “In that same meeting, I had even called him and I told him that ye ab Kutch ki izzat ka sawaal hai and we needed 10000 people. I left it up to him and the next day he went to all the villages. At 4 am in the morning on the day of the shoot, the trucks full of villagers started coming and we had over 100 trucks that came that day, all because of Danabai,” he says gleefully.
Image source: IMDb