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The Rising

Mangal Pandey belongs to whole of India: Aamir Khan
17th Aug 2005 13.05 IST
By Agencies

Reacting to reports over non-inclusion of Ballia, the native town of Mangal Pandey, in The Rising , superstar Aamir Khan says the revolutionary does not belong to one group or community but to the whole of India.

Aamir was seeking to smoothen some ruffled feathers over non-inclusion of Ballia, the native town of the revolutionary, in the newly released film.

“In all the research I did, there was no recorded fact of Pandey’s birth place and nearly four villages had staked claim to Pandey being born in their village,” Aamir said, in Bangalore to promote his film, said.

“However, if the people of Ballia feel that Pandey was born in their village, I accept and respect the fact. It is the sentiment that is important and I accept, respect and love the place from where he comes,” he said.

“But I believe that Mangal does not belong to one group or community but to the whole of India,” he said.

“There was no question of shooting in Ballia because the film is about his last three months and not on his early history. The focus was Barrackpore and even those scenes were shot in Mumbai because the place no longer looked the same as it did in 1857,” Ketan Mehta , the film’s director said.

Aamir, however, refused to react to reports about the Uttar Pradesh government contemplating a ban on screening the film in the state, following protest over alleged distortion of historical facts in the film.

“I have not received any official communication from the Uttar Pradesh government. When the Uttar Pradesh government writes to me or tells me about any conjectures, only then will I respond to these queries,” he said dismissing questions on the action he planned to take over the issue.

Dwelling on the research conducted prior to the making of the film and determined efforts to adhere to facts, Aamir said the film had even received ‘positive reviews from the British press and also from a British historian’.

“We were afraid that the British press would come down on the film hard, because the film for the first time presents the Indian point of view on the 1857 uprising,” he said.

“For me, it is not a sepoy mutiny as presented but the first war of independence. Everyone from the Rani of Jhansi to Tatya Tope participated in it,” he said.

Sounding cheerful over the ‘positive reviews’ in the British press regarding the film, he said, that the film had been appreciated and allotted star rankings by the UK press, which usually were ‘stingy on allotting stars’.

Aamir said he had also received a phone call from British historian William Dalrymple who authored the book White Moghuls and was currently researching the period of emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. William had lauded the film for being accurate, he said.

Admitting that a section of the Indian press had not ranked the film favourably, he said, “it is their point of view and I respect it”. However, according to the actor the collections had been ‘mind boggling’.

“The film is expected to do more business than Lagaan going by the collections in the first one week,” he said.

According to Manoj Bhatia of Inox theatre, the film had crossed over Rs 1 crore mark in collections in the first four days totally at all Inox theatres.

In Pune, the theatre had recorded its highest Friday earnings with the film’s screening, he said.

Aamir said that for Mangal Pandey character, he wanted that ‘wild unpredictable look’.

“Pandey was different from Bhuvan in ‘Lagaan’. For Bhuvan character in ‘Lagaan’, I needed to display strength combined with innocence. I worked on the strength aspect of the character by ensuring that as Bhuvan I always stood straight with my spine erect,” he said, standing up and demonstrating the look.

Reiterating that it was essential for the character to dominate Aamir the actor in a film, he said, “if people go to see Aamir but come out with the vision of the character, I have succeeded but if they remember Aamir the actor and not the character, I would consider myself as having failed”.

Expressing interest in playing a character in the ‘Mahabharat,’ he said much would depend on how a script turned out. “It would be crime to make a film on such an epic if the script did not match the greatness of the epic,” he said.

However, he agreed a film on the epic would be lapped world over.

To a query on Aamir the strategist who ensures huge media publicity preceding a movie release but shuns the media after, he said, “I speak only when I have something to say. What could I possibly say after I have spoken everything”.

On taking up direction, he said, “right now, I do not have a story to tell. When I do have one, I shall tell it”.

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The Rising
Aamir Khan
Ketan Mehta
Lagaan