‘Lagaan exceeded schedule by 220 days, Aamir Khan made budget problems go away, Ashutosh Gowariker directed from hospital bed’: Apoorva Lakhia

In an interview on Friday Talkies, Apoorva spoke extensively about his 25-year career in cinema, and, of course, Lagaan. Regaling the audience with tales of the intense production, Apoorva spoke about the ways people kept themselves entertained amid extreme climate and no electricity. “When Aamir got bored, he brought in chess champions from across Gujarat to the shooting spot, and played with them during breaks. There were also card games happening all around. People had to keep themselves entertained, right?” asked Apoorva, who also touched upon the now-iconic image of Ashutosh Gowariker directing Lagaan lying on a bed due to a slipped disc.

“If you observe those visuals, you would see me standing next to Ashu and relaying his messages through the mic,” said Apoorva, who revealed that things went smooth mainly because they were canning big-scale shots during Ashutosh’s medical emergency. “Since we weren’t canning scenes that required him to go and directly interact with the actors, and speak to them in detail, we could manage despite the hurdle. But yeah, it took a little longer than we had planned.”

Talking about the duration of the shoot, Apoorva pointed out that the reason why a film like Lagaan is once-in-a-lifetime experience. “We made a schedule of 80 days, and went on to shoot for 300. There were many reasons for it, including financial ones. Aamir had to intervene and arrange for the funds. And then, an animal died on the set, and Maneka Gandhi’s crew came to stop the shoot. We started filming during freezing cold temperatures, and continued to shoot in frightfully hot temperatures too,” said Apoorva, who revealed that the “O Re Chori” song, featuring Aamir and Gracy Singh, was shot in 56 degrees Celsius. “We could only shoot from 6 am to 10 am, and 4.30 – 6.30 pm. You could die if you were out there. It was impossible.”

The filmmaker also revealed how they had to axe an entire sequence centred around a nighttime match. “People held ‘mashals’ for the shoot. They were bare-footed and wearing ‘dhoti’ and ‘banian’. I know what the actors went through. It is these sacrifices and commitments that made Lagaan,” said Apoorva, who also spoke about how the film left him completely drained. “Lagaan took so much out of me. I distanced myself from cinema for two years, and even went to culinary institute to get a degree.”

But it was the classic case of all’s well that ends well for Apoorva, who became quite the star after the documentary about the shooting of Lagaan was released. “It made me a star,” said a beaming Apoorva, who added that since his contract for Lagaan was made in the USA, he was getting paid handsomely for his work on the film. “In the USA, you get paid $3000 a week as an AD, and I think I was making almost 7,000-10,000 a day in Lagaan. In fact, I made more money than Anil Mehta, the cinematographer of Lagaan.”

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Lagaan, which hit the screens in June 2001, is one of the most celebrated Indian films of all time. It remains the last Indian film to be nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Oscars, and won eight National awards.