Aamir reflects on Jaane Tu…
Taking over as director of TZP changed my life in many ways. One of the immediate ramifications was that I was no longer available to Jaane Tu… as a producer. Jaane Tu… is important to me for more reasons than one. The obvious reason is Imran, but the more delicate one is that this would be the first film from Aamir Khan Productions which I would not be acting in. As a production house we intend to produce many films which won’t have me in the cast, and these films are as important to me as the ones I act in. I believe my involvement as producer is as important to me as my involvement as an actor.
Basically, I am extremely particular about anything which has my name on it. Which is why when I took over as director of TZP I had no choice but to indefinitely delay Jaane Tu…. unless I found someone to take over from me, someone whose creative instincts I trusted as much as my own. For paranoid freaks like me that’s not an easy one.
In fact there is only one person I trust more than myself in the business of filmmaking and that is Mansoor. But how does one get him to take over? The good old reliable method of course… emotional blackmail!
Mansoor who is taking an indefinite break from films, and who I have been trying in vain to lure back into making films is not an easy nut to crack. But I have been known to be persuasive. Blood hound is how I am described by my near and dear ones, once I smell blood I don’t let go, no matter how impossible the chase.
Well Mansoor was kind enough to say yes. “Only the shooting stage,” he grumbled. “Yes, yes,” I said, “I’ll handle the rest.”
Mansoor was a godsend for us. And I pray that having spent these months with us afflicted people the germs would have got into him once again. Cinema is a very contagious disease, so please remember to thank me folks, when he makes his comeback film.
In the meantime my thanks to Abbas and his young team of actors and technicians for giving Aamir Khan Productions a film that I have absolutely no hesitation in putting my name to.
Aamir Khan