Aamir Khan on Lagaan’s clash with Sunny Deol’s Gadar: It’s remarkable that they released together and both did so well

Aamir Khan’s Lagaan completes two decades in the film industry today, and we got in touch with the superstar over a podcast call to discuss what all went behind the making of this iconic film. And Aamir also opened about clashing with Sunny Deol’s Gadar: Ek Prem Katha which turned out to be a monstrous success.

Speaking about Lagaan’s clash with Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel starrer Gadar, Aamir said, “The fact is that earlier when the film was about to release and I got to know that Gadar is coming with Lagaan. Obviously, Anil Sharma is a successful director, Sunny Deol is a huge star. So one does get concerned. However I had always imagined that and I also believe in it, in fact, I still hold by that. And we have examples to prove that when two films are good and they release on the same day then they both do well. Dil and Ghayal had the same reactions. In fact confidently, Sunny and I have come together many times. And fortunately both our films have done well. So I remember there was something during Raja Hindustani, he also had some film, I don’t remember which one. Then it (their films’ clash) happened during Dil and later during Lagaan. I had met the producer of Gadar and he had given me an outline of Gadar and I had liked it a lot. So I told Ashu (Gowariker), ‘Ashu uski kahani bahut tagdi hai (Their film’s story is very appealing). The emotional arc of their film is so good that it can’t go wrong.’ So I said be prepared for a very good film. This much I was prepared for. What I was not prepared for was the monster of a film that Gadar was. People from villages thronged the theatres in buses, tractors and trains just to watch that film. Gadar was at least three times bigger than Lagaan. It was a massive hit. I still wonder how did we survive in front of that film. That was a tsunami. You don’t realise it today.”

The Mr Perfectionist went on to add, “But the kind of business Gadar was doing, if Lagaan was even one per cent less than what it was hum log tikte hi nahi. Gadar was a monster hit and it was a good film and a bigger hit than Lagaan. So it’s remarkable that these two film released on the same day and both have done remarkably well. Like Gadar did a great business, and Lagaan might not have done the same but it received a lot of love. So they both are tent-pole films. So they proved that two good films can release on the same day and still work remarkably well.”

You can check out our entire conversation with Aamir Khan below:

Did anyone advise him against releasing his film with Gadar, the actor revealed, “I had not seen Gadar. Maybe if I would have seen it I would have gotten frightened and decided to not release my film with it. I knew the story is nice so the film will be great too. I mean I would like all films to do well. Everyone works very hard on their film. But if someone had told me that Gadar would be this bigger film then I would have twice about releasing my film on the same day. But at that time we didn’t know that it would be such a big film. I don’t think even Sunny or Anil Sharma knew that their film is going to be such a monster. Because this kind of success is very rare. And no one had said to me to not release my film on the same day. I don’t remember anyone saying that to me specifically.”

Also Read: 20 years of Lagaan: Aamir Khan on his father’s bankruptcy: After watching him I had decided to never produce any film