Mumbai: Lagaan is one movie that made us cry, smile and cherish at the same time. It’s been 20 years since Ashutosh Gowariker and Aamir Khan brought this extraordinary period piece to the audience. The movie that made cricket a way to fight against oppression from the Britishers, was widely loved and is still loved by the audience across generations. However, not many of us know that it was Aamir Khan’s first wife Reena who became one of the major reasons behind the movie’s success.
On 20 years of Lagaan, Aamir talked about how his first wife Reena, who had nothing to do with filmmaking, co-produced Lagaan as if she was a veteran. Aamir revealed that he had requested Reena to help, following which she learned everything on her own. “When I requested her one night, ke yrr main producer kr rha hu aap thoda, I’ll need your help. She said I don’t know anything about filmmaking, what can I help? I said you can try and learn. Be there. Somebody I can trust completely. She was very supportive and she said I’ll learn, usne I’ll learn kya bola poora hi seekh liya,” the actor said.
Aamir also explained how Reena went and met several directors, producers, visited labs and met technicians to learn the details of filmmaking. “She went and met Subhash Ghai, Manmohan Shetty who runs a lab. Lab mein jaake she learned negative, sound negative, processing, printing – the entire lab process. She went and met producers, directors to understand filmmaking,” he said.
Aamir mentioned that he was left very impressed with Reena’s work and he still wonders how she did it. He also said that Reena’s work is something that has remained with him as learning over the years. “Now that is something that has always remained with me throughout my life – how one person, who wasn’t from the field did it. Voh toh film se hai bhi nahi, uska enter hona aur itna control paana was something remarkable. That’s one of my big memories. I still wonder how she did it,” Aamir concluded.
Aamir Khan was married to his first wife, Reena Dutta for fifteen years. However, they decided to part ways in 2002. Aamir then married film director Kiran Rao in 2005.
Aamir also talked about Lagaan‘s box office clash with Gadar: Ek Prem Katha and said “I was prepared for Gadar to be a good film. What I was not prepared for, was the monster of a film that it was. People would travel in trucks for the film. Gadar was at least three times, if not four times, bigger than Lagaan. Gadar was a tsunami. If Lagaan was even one percent less of a film, we would not have stood a chance anywhere.”