4 min readMumbaiMar 19, 2026 07:28 PM IST
Actor Aamir Khan and filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker were present at the Red Lorry Film Festival in Mumbai. The actor and director celebrated 25 years of their iconic film Lagaan. While talking about the film, Ashutosh and Aamir revisited the uncertainty that existed around sports films back then. Aamir recalled how seven to eight sports films had flopped before Lagaan was released. Aamir called it an ‘unusual film for Indian cinema’ and also recalled having a spat with Ashutosh over his character Bhuvan being clean-shaven in a village struck with drought.
‘Bhuvan should have been how I look now’
Discussing who eventually won the argument about Aamir’s character in Lagaan being clean-shaven, the actor said, “Eventually Ashutosh won the spat, but be honest, Bhuvan should have been how I look now.” Ashutosh defended himself and said, “Lagaan was an experimental film and script; I had to do fresh casting for other characters. I only had one Aamir Khan, and I thought he had to look handsome in the film. He was supposed to be clean-shaven and have a slightly different hairstyle and no moustache. I thought that was more important for the film.”
Later, Aamir pulled up Ashutosh said, “Tell me one thing, it wasn’t raining in that village, there was no water to drink, and this guy was shaving every day, how come the entire village didn’t beat him up? Bhuvan was getting water to shave every day, while other villagers didn’t even have water to drink. No one reacted to it that time, but it’s a logical question as to why he was shaving, that should be the last thing on his mind.”
Aamir Khan on Lagaan
Last year, speaking to Mashable India about Lagaan, Aamir Khan had said, “The first cut that Ashu showed us was of seven and a half hours. We shot that much. In that, four and a half hours was the lead-up to the cricket match. We removed several sequences, and some sequences were very long, so we cut them short. We came down to 3 hours, 42 minutes. We had to cut around half of the film.”
Aamir had also recalled how distributors were quite upset with Ashutosh Gowariker for not selling the film’s rights. He recalled, “We weren’t happy. I felt that even a three-hour film was enough, but we couldn’t tell the story in that duration. So, the distributors were very upset because I didn’t sell the rights to the film. It was my first film as a producer, and I wanted to see for myself first if everything was good or not. I didn’t want to pre-sell in advance; it would have been irresponsible. I focused on making the film first. I knew that it was a risky film, the subject is cricket, and the distributor doesn’t even know.”
Lagaan was released in 2001, and it was also nominated for the Oscars in 2002. The film remains iconic in the Hindi cinema for its scope and success.
This article provides behind-the-scenes editorial insights and personal reflections from the creators of Lagaan; it is intended for entertainment and informational purposes only.
Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
