Aamir Khan on his biggest regrets and lessons learnt, ‘I signed 10 films, but I used to go home and cry’

Aamir Khan, the Perfectionist of Bollywood, is turning 60 on March 14. To celebrate his inspiring and entertaining journey as an actor, PVR is coming up with a special series of re-releases of the best of his films at the Cinema Ka Jaadugar: The Aamir Khan Film Festival. To take place between 14 March to 27 March, the festival will showcase his films like Dangal, Rang De Basanti, Dil Chahta Hai, Lagaan, Taare Zameen Par amongst others. At the trailer launch of the same, Aamir Khan got nostalgic as he recalled his earlier days as an actor. He shared some interesting anecdotes about the mistakes that he made and the lessons that he ended up learning, that he follows to date.

In conversation with Javed Akhtar, Aamir said that he looks for three things before signing a film. "I look at three things. 1) Script, Story, Screenplay, 2) Director, 3) Producer," he said, further explaining why these aspects are important. "My first criteria is that I should like the story. Then, it should be a director whose work I like," Aamir shared and explained that he doesn't look at the success of the director as that is determined by multiple factors. "I look for his ability. If the person has the ability to do good work, I will work with him, irrespective of his past failures," the actor-turned-producer revealed.

Recalling how he learnt this important lesson, Aamir Khan revealed that back in 1988 when his first film Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak released and became a hit, he was bombarded with offers, "I got around 300-400 offers. That was a time when people used to sign multiple films. Each actor has around 40-50 films. In fact, as per trade magazines, Anil Kapoor had the least number of films and that was 33."

Talking about his own journey, he said that he signed 9-10 films. "The top directors whose work I admired and wanted to work with didn't offer me any films. So I chose from the offers I got." He thought that his career as an actor is panning out well when he realized something while shooting for these films that changed him forever. "When the shooting started, I realised my mistake. I was working three shifts but I was unhappy. I used to go back home and cry," he confessed.

"I had said yes to the story but I realised that the vision of the director is very important. I learnt this lesson in the first 6 months and 1 year of working on these films," he further explained how a producer is equally important. "Take for instance a scene, where there is a scene to be shot with the mountains as the backdrop. In my head, I am thinking of Kashmir, the director is thinking of Khandala and the producer is thinking of shooting this at the film city itself," Aamir explained that a Producer who is strong (budget and vision wise is important to give you the right kind of resources and release otherwise it gets creatively frustrating.

These experiences that he had in the first year of his time in films, Aamir learnt these important lessons and he says that these are the three conditions that help him make the decision of which projects to choose and which projects to let go of.