July 4th is still a month away but the excitement about Aamir Khan Productions’ new film, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, is reaching higher levels everyday. For this film, Aamir only had his producer hat on and in a recent interview he talked a bit about the plot, of course his nephew Imran Khan and many other things.
Talking about the film Aamir said, “JTYJN is a simple film about a few college friends and their lives on the campus. When Abbas Tyrewala came to me with the script, the innocence therein made me snap it up for production since we hardly see such pure and sweet films nowadays.”
His nephew Imran is making his debut in the film but Aamir says that he is not “launching” his career; Imran just was the best actor for the job. “I don’t believe in launch pads. The hero of my film is the script and I choose only those actors who suit the script perfectly, irrespective of whether it’s a relative of mine, an unrelated person or even me, myself. I’m very particular about what I lend my name to and don’t let emotional or personal considerations come in the way of those decisions.”
He went on to say, “Before Abbas approached me to produce the film, he had auditioned lots of youngsters for the main lead and had decided upon Imran. I was happy with the decision; not because Imran’s my nephew but because he really suited the role. Had I felt otherwise, I would have said so because when I produce a film, I need to be convinced about all aspects of the same.”
Aamir also talked about casting his heroines and particularly JTYJN’s heroine Genelia D’Souza, “I cast actors after painstakingly doing screen-tests and auditions, strictly as per their suitability to the roles. Whether it’s Gracy Singh in Lagaan or Tisca Chopra in TZP, they were cast because they fitted the groove; irrespective of their previous track records, which incidentally were quite good — both were popular on TV. As for Genelia, though she hasn’t had much box-office success till now, it’s just a matter of getting the correct role. She has done a great job in JTYJN. If one may recall, when Juhi Chawla was cast in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, she was not a popular actor; but later she scaled the peaks of success after finding her groove.”
He also clarified that the song, ‘Pappu Can’t Dance’ is not about Salman Khan, “The song ‘Pappu Can’t Dance’, which a tabloid reported to be a spoof on Salman Khan, was a fun song that sneaked out of Abbas’ naughty brain to go with a situation in which the hero is dumbing down a showy friend. We were brainstorming on the lines of what guys like to show off — that’s how things like cars and watches and wooing beautiful girls, got woven. The likeliness to Salman is purely co-incidental and uncanny. It was never my intention to take pot-shots at him. For the record, I think Salman dances really well…so there!”
There has been lots of talk about the battle between Harman Baweja’s debut in Love Story 2050 and Imran’s in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na because the films are releasing on the same day. In fact the director of Love Story 2050 asked Aamir to postpone JTYJN but Aamir said it was just not possible: “Harry had approached me with the proposal but sadly, I couldn’t postpone the date anymore because apart from other technical reasons, JTYJN had already got delayed by almost four months in the post-production stage. Harry understood my dilemma and we both felt, let the best man win. Ultimately, it’s the audience who going to decide. I’ll be equally happy if Harman aces at the BO.”
On another note, recently a blog post Aamir made created quite the controversy but it was it certainly was not meant to offend anyone. “It was a harmless comment that snowballed into a controversy; I spoke to Shah Rukh about it and he actually laughed it off. But quite a lot of people have been offended by it. To put the record straight, if one reads the blog completely, after making the statement that “Shah Rukh is at my feet and I’m feeding him biscuits,” I have clarified in the next line itself that I’m referring to my dog who was named so by the staff of the house in the memory of Shah Rukh who was shooting in Panchgani the day the pup was brought home. But only one line got highlighted and an avalanche of allegations hurtled on me. It was never my intention to hurt anybody — be it Shah Rukh, my fans or his fans. It was in pure humour and I apologise sincerely for all the trouble it caused nevertheless.”
Getting back to Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na and Aamir’s opinion of Imran the actor? “Imran has a good screen presence. The camera loves him and that’s a big asset for any actor. He’s also a good dancer; but he still has a long way to go. He should extract the optimum out of the opportunity that he has got at a young age.”
We are certainly looking forward to JTYJN and will report all the news leading up to the premiere in July so watch this space for more!
