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It could have been dismissed as PR drivel, except that there was nobody from any publicity department around and this was witnessed in person.
Last week, Aamir Khan was shooting for his new thriller with Reema Kagti, his third female director. He had acted in Earth for Deepa Mehta and wife Kiran Rao’s Dhobi Ghat was his second experience. Dressed in the familiar khaki uniform of a cop with a huge moustache, Aamir was shooting at the Parsee Gymkhana in Dadar with his well-trained and polite security posse (courtesy actor Ronit Roy who owns the security agency) first checking over headphone mikes with his assistant before briskly ushering you into his presence.
In a tiny un-airconditioned room, Aamir sat on a wooden chair near a tiny table with a bottle of mineral water, a big welcoming smile on his face. “Guess what? We’ve just packed up for the day, so we can talk in the car back to Bandra,” he said. “But do you mind if I play just a little bit of badminton before we leave?” He went behind the partition to do a quick dress change, emerging in shorts and a tee, sat down and began to wear two pairs of socks and then his Nike shoes. It could’ve been any non-fussy college student getting ready in a trice for a game on the badminton court downstairs.
“Aamir, you wear your shoes yourself,” I teased the actor. He grinned. He and I have seen enough actors over the years who simply put out a foot even while they’re talking to someone and don’t even glance in the direction of a Man Friday who will subserviently put on the socks and the shoes for his celebrity master.
On the badminton court, once again it was all streamlined, like the staff knew the routine. A large pack of Yonex shuttlecocks was ready in his kit. Every time he signalled for it, his people would throw a new one to him.
He parked me on a stool between the nets, a vantage point from where one watched at least four different players in singles and doubles play against Aamir. All the players on the other side of the net were much taller than him and about 15 years younger than the 46-year-old actor. But one of them got so tired he doubled up and gasped, “No more, bhai, sorry.” Aamir was still springing around like a teenager. He went through three more players; then a slightly more professional guy probably from the club itself came along. Aamir defeated each one of them without a break and with ease.
“I have played competitive badminton in my earlier years,” Aamir later said, relaxing in the gleaming Bentley that calmly drove out of the Gymkhana. My little Chevrolet Beat followed with two of his staffers in it. A state level player in his much younger days, Aamir downs bottles of mineral water all through the day, “And I am very, very careful about what I eat. I am very strict with my diet.” It has undoubtedly helped the actor knock off more than a decade from his chronological age. The fitness level he has achieved is to die for.
As the Bentley turned at the Plaza curve in Dadar en route to his house in Pali Hill in Bandra, Aamir looked at a huge hoarding of Balgandharva, a new Marathi movie. “I must catch up with this film,” he muttered, peering out of the window. “You know about Balgandharva, na?” he asked. “He was an actor who did mostly female roles.”
Maybe we should tip off his friend Atul Kulkarni to do the needful. Ever since they acted together in Rang De Basanti, Aamir has made time to watch the Marathi films Atul screens for him.
He has to make time for it because Aamir is not a regular movie watcher. “Somehow I’ve always loved reading so much that I never seem to have the time to see a movie,” he explained. “For instance, once I reach home, I’ll start reading a book. It never strikes me to put on a DVD and watch a movie. Somehow that’s never been my idea of relaxation.”
With books getting preference over films, Aamir has missed many movies. In fact, to return to where we started, to the women directors of Hindi cinema, sorry Farah Khan, but Aamir has not seen any of your films — forget about Tees Maar Khan, he hasn’t even seen your blockbusters, Main Hoon Naa or Om Shanti Om.
