On Bhuwan, his character in the film...
He is a strong-willed man, has a sense of humour and leadership quality and integrity.
On doing one film at a time...
I don't know when I leave a character behind and move on. I shot Lagaantill June last year. From August till January I have been shooting for DilChahta Hai and the character still stays with me. The two characters havebeen poles apart. It would have been impossible to cope with both of themtogether.
On working with young directors...
I am not afraid to work with young talent. I have been the only actor of mygeneration to risk working with so many new, young directors - Raj KumarSantoshi, Vikram Bhatt, Mansoor Khan, Indra Kumar, John Matthew Mathan, HarmsDarshan and now Farmhand Kantar. I should have faith in the director. At the endage doesn't matter. It's the level of energy and excitement that the directorbuilds up.
On the shooting in Kutch...
We spent six months in Kutch. It was important to interact with the localpeople. We tried to generate jobs for the locals, involved them in the shoot. Ittook 5-6 months to erect the set and we used the local labour. We had 50 actorsfrom the local theatre and about 250 villagers to form part of the backgroundaction which is as important as what unfolds in the foreground. The villagerswere natural born actors, very comfortable despite facing the camera for thefirst time. The people there have tremendous integrity and dignity. We spent alot of time in getting together period properties. Like the right bullock cartbecause even carts these days have rubber wheels. We rented flats in asemi-constructed building. We had to completely furnish it with TV, geysers, andtelephone. We had 30-strong security team, had hired plumbers and electriciansand ran a fully functional housekeeping department. It was virtually likerunning a hotel.
On his attempts to help the earthquake-affected people...
We were worried about all the local people we had worked with. The unit hascollected about Rs 35-40 lakh for all those who we got to know in those sixmonths. I wanted to visit them personally but realised my presence would nothave helped, it would have only added to the chaos.
On the controversy surrounding the revelation of crucial elements (i.e. acricket match between Aamir 11 and the British 11) of the plot by actressRachael Shelley...
There has been a lot of curiosity about what we have been making. But it isthe prerogative of the production house as to how much they want to reveal. Whydoes the press want to know the story? They confuse this with some major bit ofinvestigative journalism. So many creative people have come together to work ona project. Do they have no respect for that effort? I think the ideal way ofviewing is when an audience comes into the hall without knowing much about thestory and then gets exposed to the film in the darkness of the cinema hall.That's the beauty of cinema, the pure experience that I'd like to maintain.I have been happy with Rachael's work. She has some views about our productionhouse which I don't agree with.