More than a decade passed by, and Aamir Khan delivered some flops/ Anwal Number with Dev Anand, Parampara with Yash Chopra, Andaaz Apna Apna with Raj Kumar Santoshi, some superhits Dil, Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke, Rangeela, Raja Hindustni, Ishq, Ghulam and some unconventional projects like Deepa Mehta’s Earth and John Matthan’s Sarfarosh.
Two films made during this decade stand out in my memory for special attention. Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahi when we organized a cover shoot between the lead pair Pooja Bhatt and Aamir Khan and the shoot almost did not happen because Aamir ragged Pooja relentlessly and Pooja refused to shoot with her bully hero apologized. They fought like kinder garden kids squabbling over their pencil-rubbers, while my photographer Gautam Rajyadhaksha waited for the madness to subside!
Interestingly the same actor could also be extremely mature. I was visiting his shooting of Baazi on a Navratri night when he had to perform a complex scene, post the shot Aamir explained that responses of an actor to a scene is determined by the instruction given by the director and Ashutosh is a master of perfect instructions. “In the scene just enacted Ashu asked me to be clumsy and altered the position of the phone, so while bending on the other side to receive the call, I automatically turned clumsy”.
To be continued