Aamir Khan recalls a cop’s ‘blunt’ reaction to Delhi Belly: ‘Whatever respect you have earned in the last 25 years, you will lose it’

“When we watched the first cut, it didn’t work for us. And then we went through a number of cuts. Jim Furgele (co-producer) also suggested an editor in Los Angeles, who was a friend. We did a cut there also, but that didn’t work either,” Aamir recalled recently in a Delhi Belly FanMeet. He then recalled a reaction he got at the first test screening of Delhi Belly, which left him quite shocked.

“There was me, Kiran, Imran, Ram Sampath (music composer) and some eight to 10 people at the screening. Mumbai Police’s security accompanies me everywhere. So, I asked them to watch the film too. I was also watching the film for the first time. When I was watching, I thought, ‘Bahut buri film banayi hai yaar (laughs). Alag level buri hai,'” recalled Aamir.

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He immediately wanted to go to the editor’s room because he wanted to find out whether the film had been shot wrongly or edited wrongly. “After the screening got over, I asked the cop how he liked the film. He looked at the screen, then he looked at me, and then he looked down. Then he said, ‘Sir, pichhle 25 saalon mein jo aapne naam kamaya hai na, wo aap ye ek film mein gawane wale ho.‘ He actually said it so bluntly.

“A lot of the times, first cuts don’t work. It’s not an unusual thing. When humour is not working, and there are a lot of abuses, then you feel that’s only for effect. So, that makes it worse. That’s how bad it was. But we managed to correct it. We sat down on it again a couple of years later, and then it worked out,” added Aamir.

Interestingly, the cop’s “blunt” reaction to Delhi Belly even made it to the first teaser of the film. Imran is seen warning the audience, “Mamu apni saari izzat gawane wale hain,” in order to build their appetite for the kind of film to expect from Aamir, who was best known for socially conscious dramas like Lagaan (2001) and Rang De Basanti (2006).