Filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra has delivered several hits along the years; Of which, 'Rang De Basanti' remains the most iconic. Mehra released his autobiography 'The Stranger in the Mirror' on July 27 and the book is rife with anecdotes and details of his journey in advertising and filmmaking. In a newly released excerpt, Mehra shares how superstar Aamir Khan demanded to be paid double the amount in case 'Rang De Basanti' was delayed.
Showering praise on Aamir, Mehra said, “He imbibed the soul of DJ and Chandrashekhar Azad and gave his own interpretation to it, ranging from the sublime to the mundane qualities of the character. Bharathi (the filmmaker’s wife) had given me a quote which she had read, ‘There are two primary choices in life. Either you let things be the way they are. Or take responsibility for changing them.’ I sent Aamir the same as a one-line brief for his character impetus.”
Describing what Aamir's clause was, Mehra added, “Aamir is a visionary and understands everything that is going wrong or right with the creative process. Sometimes, tough decisions like ‘let’s shoot for 10 more days’ became easy because Aamir backed the need to do it. Also, he had no ego about whose scene it was. If the scene belonged to the other boys, he would happily stay in the background because the film’s narrative was the Bible that could not be tampered with. Aamir’s cinematic understanding remains unparalleled in our industry. Without his nod, RDB would have been another dreamer’s script gathering the dust of apathy and inertia. While signing on the dotted line, Aamir included a clause, which was the reason I ended up making the movie on time in the first place. Here’s an example: ‘If my fee is £400,000 and you don’t pay me on time, then you’ll have to pay me £800,000 for defaulting,’ he had said. I had never even seen £800,000 till then.”
The 2006 release went on to gather both critical and commercial acclaim, and remains one of the finest Bollywood movies to this date.
