Can a 44-year-old actor ever look like a 20-something campus youth? Without exaggeration, Aamir Khan has done it. After that beefy, menacing physique in Ghajini, Aamir Khan is slender, almost like he was in his debut film Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak.

“I’ve realised that it’s all in the weight. If you can bring your weight down to what it was when you were in your 20s, you can look young,” explains the actor, over a cup of black coffee.

Not true. Look at Paresh Rawal (he knocked off more than 20 kilos last year) or Shah Rukh Khan (after the 6-pack regimen). Most times, people who shed a load from their bodies end up looking fatigued and haggard. But Aamir is really looking spring fresh.

“That’s because of weight-loss programmes like Atkins’ Diet and others, which are only protein rich,” says Aamir. “I have found a doctor who gives you fats, carbs and proteins in equal proportion, so you don’t miss out on any nutrients.” The diet means not even a piece of your own birthday cake, no sweets, no cheese and no oily, fried stuff. But what Aamir tanks up with is, “litres and litres of water.” At any given time, he has a couple of bottles close at hand and drinking plenty of water helps keep age at bay.

Of course, Aamir is doing it all for a film. As he says, “I have to look really young in Raju’s film 3 Idiots.” It’s the Indian Institute of Technology campus story, based, as everybody now knows, on Chetan Bhagat’s bestseller, Five Point Someone.

For someone who is so obviously disciplined, Aamir’s working room at home has stacks of files, papers, cartons of DVDs and CDs, shelves creaking with books and has a general store room ambience. “Sorry about the mess, I’ve been really busy, we’ve all been working non-stop,” he apologises, before grinning, “Actually, it always looks like this!”

The discipline is more inside him. With elections around the corner, Aamir has been mentally designing a method to vote for the right candidate, by first eliminating the undesirables. On top of his list is, “Anybody who even reminds me of my religion or caste. Out goes the candidate, I won’t vote for him/her. Next, if anybody even tries to buy my vote, he’ll be immediately deleted.” Aamir’s suggestion to voters is to, “Draw up a list of all that you don’t want in your leader. Once you’ve scored out all the undesirables, you choose from the remaining candidates.” Sounds foolproof on paper. Only niggling thought: after eliminating those who don’t appeal to our principles, will there be any candidates left to choose from?

There’s some news trickling in from Hyderabad where David Dhawan has been shooting non stop for his new film Hook Ya Crook. Like Rajkumar (Munna Bhai) Hirani, David was once a film editor before he turned director. So he is reputed to be an economical filmmaker (editors have a way of mentally editing even while they’re shooting, so there’s little wastage). UTV, the producers of Hook Ya Crook are also happy to have on board John Abraham, who has nearly halved his price for this film.

Since it’s a long two-month stint in Hyderabad, John put in a request to his producers to find a gym for him close by. Understandably, after all that hard work on his body for Dostana, John didn’t want to let it all hang out. But the UTV guys were so thrilled with John’s sincerity (and price, of course) that, forget about finding a gym, they decided to put up a gym for him at the studio itself. This way, John has all the time in the world to shoot when required and keep his body in shape whenever he’s free. Smart producers — penny-wise and pound-wise, too!

Sanjay Dutt is back in Mumbai, winding up his shoot for Luck before hitting the campaign trail. And Salman Khan is back in blazing Rajasthan for Veer, his pet project. If he was seen at sis-in-law Amrita Arora’s wedding, it was because he took a two-day break to fly down only for Ammu’s sake.

By the way, Aamir Khan’s office room at home has a huge painting in charcoal put up on one wall. It’s a personal gift from painter-friend Salman Khan!

Bharathi S. Pradhan is managing editor of Movie Mag International