EXCLUSIVE: When Aamir Khan Mocked And Laughed At Amitabh Bachchan

Aamir Khan, the perfectionist makes sure that he maintains his persona on screen, however in reality he can loosen up a little and spill out beans too. That is exactly what happened when Desimartini caught up with the star at his place on a scorching summer afternoon. The actor was looking like a college guy and it is not an exaggeration. He was pretty pepped when he was appreciated about how young he was looking. Quipped he, “I went to Shah Rukh’s place and everyone present there were complimenting me too saying you are looking too young what are you doing? I am very relaxed. I started eating and drinking so I put on a little weight but after Diwali I will go on a strict diet. Diwali pe nahi hota. (I can’t diet during Diwali). It might also be because the long hair and beard have now gone.

In the film Thugs of Hindostan, Aamir plays the character of Firangi Malla. It is quite an unusual name. The actor was not aware why the writer director chose such a name, he exclaimed, “God knows why he chose the name firangi. In my head the logic was Firangi is probably an illegitimate child of an English guy. He calls himself Firangi, speaks broken English.

I was listening to him in rapt attention and all of a sudden he looked up and asked, “Did you read Daastaan-e-Aamir Hamza? Chandrakanta is based on Daastan-e-Aamir Humza - a story of magic and witches and magicians so on and so forth. In that story, there was a character called Aamir Aaiyaar, Aamir Aiyaar’s friend was called Bakht Firangi. He must have taken the name from there. Because the two of them are very viscious characters.”

Just because he shares the screen space with Mr Amitabh Bachchan for the first time, I was inquisitive to know about the childhood memories he had about Big B, Aamir revealed he did have some realy absurd memories about him. The actor admitted, “I have very bizarre memories of Mr Bachchan. I come from a filmmaking family, when we were kids, the Filmfare magazine had come up with a double spread. They had put a lot of photos of newcomers who were interested in acting and wanted to become actors. Me and my siblings, Faisal, Nikhat and two maids, looked at those photos and we mocked and laughed at the photos, we used to say Arrey isko dekh, yeh banega Star (Look at this fellow and he wants to become a star, like really?)

“We were very small. One of the pictures was that of Mr Bachchan, I told him and he was most amused! I remember because, his picture was made fun of and was laughed at the most! And then we realised, soon enough he became one of the most popular actors and then I used to tell my sisters, “Remember we used to laugh at his photo.” The thing is, the photos were so weird, such funny passport size photos. The faces looked bad.