Kiran Rao is venturing into the territory of independent filmmaking with her own production house — a part of the overall banner of Aamir Khan Productions, she emphasises — and will be directing the film Dhobi Ghaat. The industry has several couples, both of whom are actors or singers, but there is no couple where the husband and wife are both directors. There is no couple where they are both producers. And there certainly is no couple where the husband and wife are both producers and directors — who, as Aamir subtly adds, “think differently”.
What’s made her chart this course and how does she see cinema differently? Kiran says, “The reason I started an independent company is because I am interested in cinema for cinema’s sake. I don’t understand the dynamics of commercial cinema very well. I watch a lot of films, experimental, avantgrade, animation — I’d like to see more films like the one I am making. I feel it needs encouragement of a different nature from commercial cinema, which is driven by market requirements. Besides the films I direct, as a producer I hope to take up subjects that mainstream producers will shy away from handling.”
Now that she’s his spouse, what’s it like working with Aamir? “It’s exciting and intense, and yet a lot of fun,” she replies. “I knew that working with him was something I would love to do all my life. We work well together, and while as professionals we have our own aesthetics, our own ideas, we still understand each other and have a lot of common ground... But while we don’t discuss cinema in general too often, we certainly keep talking about the things that we are doing, our plans. That doesn’t just come to the dining table, it comes to the bed, the bath, the balcony, pretty much everywhere!”
Have they changed each other since they met? Kiran goes first here. “I was very idealistic about cinema, and didn’t quite understand the realities, the things that drive cinema. He’s sensitised me much more to the process. He’s also shown me how important it is to listen. I used to be pretty dismissive of what other people thought. He listens to everybody, then does what he feels is right. I still haven’t got there, but I’m trying. When you’re with someone you are happiest with, it changes how much you are able to give of yourself. I think my relationship with him has made me more compassionate. What this has done to me is that not just do I need more, but I give more, personally as well as creatively.”
Quid pro, Aamir? “I think there’s been a dramatic change in me as a person. I am much more easygoing, I’m much more relaxed … She came into my life when I was going through my worst phase, personally, and things have looked up after that. Her personality is so bright, happy and vivacious that it is infectious. That has a strong effect on me. And our relationship is such that we are friends first.” And then he reflects, “Maybe, for me, the change after we came together has been much more personal. For her, it has been much more professional.”
Aamir lights up and one asks Kiran, how are you letting him get away with smoking? “Nobody lets Aamir ‘get away’ with anything,” she laughs. “He does what he wants to, pretty much. I know he’ll put it aside soon, once he decides to. You see, Aamir has an amazingly obsessive personality. When he latches on to something, he just doesn’t let go... Like when he was training, he’d spend four hours, five hours a day in the gym. Nothing is by half measures. Everything he does is by heaped measures!”
source:timesofindia.com
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