Junaid Khan made a mistake with Ek Din, says emotional Aamir Khan wanted to make a film for him
If you have to enter films, you need to know about writing. Even if you don’t become a writer, you need to know about writing,” Aamir Khan told film students who congregated at Whistling Woods International, Mumbai, on May 5 for the third Screen Academy Masterclass. The actor has been credited as a screenwriter in only two films across his 42-year career — Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke (1993) and Ghajini (2008). But Aamir insists that even students, who are not aspiring screenwriters, must learn the craft to be one with the film they are making. For this, Aamir strongly recommends the book, The Art of Dramatic Writing (1946) by Hungarian playwright and teacher Lajos Egri. “It’s the mother of all books on writing. It’s primarily about theatre, but translates very well to cinema as well,” he said. The very first chapter of the book is about setting the premise, similar to what his late father and veteran filmmaker Tahir Hussain would ask every screenwriter even after getting a three-hour long narration: “Narrate the story in one line. If you can’t do that, your film won’t work,” Hussain would say. “I used to find it very unreasonable,” confessed Aamir in a conversation with Priyanka Sinha Jha, COO, Screen Academy. The Screen Academy is an initiative to nurture and showcase new voices in Indian cinema.“Later on, I realised what he was trying to say: that you need to have clarity of your premise, of what you’re trying to communicate. For instance, in Dangal, we were trying to say, ‘Humari chhoriyan chhoron se kum hai ke (Our girls are no less than the boys)’. That was our premise,” he says, referring to his 2016 blockbuster, where he played a retired Haryanvi wrestler who trains his daughters to follow in his footsteps. The Art of Dramatic Writing also underlines the importance of goal-setting in a movie. “Unlike in a book, in cinema, you only have two to two-and-a-half hours to tell your story. That’s where the economy of telling a story comes in,” said Aamir, “So, the goal-setting needs to happen early. For instance, in Lagaan, when Bhuvan says, ‘Sharat manjoor hai (we accept your challenge)’, you know the goal is locked. The audience knows where the film is headed,” he said, illustrating from his seminal 2001 sports drama, which revolved around a team of misfits from a village uniting to compete with the British cricket team as a desperate attempt to waive off exploitative taxes in colonial India. Aamir also clarified that while one is free to break these screenwriting rules, one must be well-versed with them in the first place. He’s no stranger to that, having gone against the mainstream order with blockbusters such as Lagaan; Rang De Basanti (2006), his 2007 directorial debut Taare Zameen Par and Dangal, where he played an overweight, 51-year-old father to four girls. “When you love something, make it with full passion and honesty. It may or may not seem ‘mainstream’ then. More than half of the films I did weren’t supposed to be mainstream,” he said. Aamir Khan played a retired Haryanvi wrestler in Dangal.When asked about that dividing wall between commercial and arthouse cinema, he answered, “According to me, everything is commercial. Each and every film you make ought to make money. Filmmaking is an art form. So, every film is commercial, and every film is art, to different degrees.” Aamir, however, also cautioned film students against approaching a mainstream film with an uncompromising arthouse approach. “Once you’ve committed to a film, you need to be honest to its flavour. For instance, when it’s Andaz Apna Apna, it’s a whacky comedy. The pitch or the sur is very high, so if I do a very realistic performance, I’d stick out like a sore thumb,” said Aamir, in reference to Rajkumar Santoshi’s 1994 cult classic comedy, starring him and Salman Khan.Story continues below this ad He maintained that irrespective of his star stature, he’s always in service of the film. “For me, what character I’m playing comes secondary. The only film
