20 Years Of Lagaan EXCLUSIVE: Aamir Khan on clashing with Sunny Deol – “What I was not prepared for was the monster of the film that Gadar was”

By Bollywood Hungama News Network -

June 15, 2021 - 1:52 PM IST

Aamir Khan starrer Lagaan broke every record at the Indian cinema. The film completed 20 years on June 15, 2021. Celebrating double decade of his movie, the actor and Mr. Perfectionist Aamir Khan spoke about his experiences, struggles and friendship while shooting the movie. He also shared about assumption and pressure of Lagaan releasing on the same day as Gadar.

20 Years Of Lagaan EXCLUSIVE: Aamir Khan on clashing with Sunny Deol – “What I was not prepared for was the monster of the film that Gadar was”

Aamir Khan spoke about the mega-class with Sunny Deol’s Gadar in 2001. He said, “When the film was about to release and I got to know that Gadar is coming with Lagaan – obviously Anil Sharma is a successful director, Sunny Deol is a huge star – one does get concern . However, I always imagine and also believed in it and we are examples to prove that when two films are released on the same day and do well. Dil and Ghayal had the same thing. Infact, Sunny and I have come coincidentally together many times and fortunately, both our films have done well.”

He added, “I remember there was something during Raja Hindustani, he had some film I don’t remember which one so it happened then and after it, that happened with Lagaan and Gadar. Somebody from the team I think the producer himself I met him once and he told me the outline of the story and I liked it a lot. I told Ashutosh Gowariker that this story is very strong; the weightage of the emotions in this film is so perfect that it can’t go wrong. Gadar is not going go wrong, so I told to be prepared for a very good film this much i was prepared for.”

Further talking about Gadar’s success, Aamir said, “What I was not prepared for was the monster of the film that Gadar was. People used to come in tractors to watch the film – tractors, buses and trucks full of people from villages coming to watch the film and it’s not a joke . Gadar was at least 3 times bigger than Lagaan – a massive hit, monster hit – Gadar is one of the big one. In front of it, I don’t know how we even stood because that was a tsunami. Gadar was tsunami, today I realised. The kind of business Gadar was doing, Lagaan was even 1% less than what it is. We wouldn’t even stand so Gadar was a monster hit and it was a big hit.

He further said, “I was very good and very loved film and a bigger hit than Lagaan, so it’s remarkable that these two films released on the same day and both the films have done remarkable. Gadar has done great business; Lagaan may not have done as much as the business but it’s received a lot of love in place of it. Both are very tentpole films, both have done really well. What I have been trying to say that it’s proved again two films obviously it won’t do same amount of business. One will do a lot and one won’t do that much but both did well both were loved. So Gadar was a monster hit.”

Sticking to decision of releasing Lagaan on same day as Gadar, Aamir further elaborated, “I went with my guts. I had not seen Gadar maybe if I had seen it, I would have been frightened and said no this won’t release with Gadar. But, I didn’t watch it but I only know this is a nice story, nice film and it will be good and why should my rival film or the film releasing – why should it not be a good film. I like all the films and everyone works hard on it why would we want someone else’s film to go weak. We thought it will be a nice film if someone would have told me it’s gonna be this big of a film then I would have thought twice that we can’t come in front of this big film. We didn’t know it’s gonna be this big film. I don’t think that even Sunny Deol and Anil Sharma knew that’s it’s gonna be such a monster because these kind of success are very rare. So at that time we didn’t know it is going to be this big hit or what but no one really know”.

About the presumptions of this film especially from friends and colleagues, he added, “No one has said don’t come on the screen. I don’t remember anyone saying that to me”.

Lagaan starred Aamir Khan, Gracy among others. It was directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. Meanwhile, Gadar starred Sunny Deol, Ameesha Patel and Amrish Puri. It was helmed by Anil Sharma.

Also Read: 20 Years of Lagaan EXCLUSIVE: Aamir Khan reveals how challenging to arrange 10,000 people for final cricket sequence shoot