Aamir Khan-starrer Lagaan is considered one of the most popular and celebrated films in the history of Indian cinema. The film was directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar; over the years, it has attained cult status in Bollywood. The historical period drama was set against the backdrop of the British Raj in the 1800s. It shows the story of Indian villagers rebelling against high taxes levied by the Britishers. The film’s success was not just limited to India, but reached a global platform as well. The film was also nominated for the Academy Awards. Now, one of the actors of the film, Yashpal Sharma, has talked about his experience and how he bagged the iconic role of Lakha in the film. As per him, the role was the best, as it had all kinds of variations.
In the interview, he said, “I got Lakha’s role in Lagaan, and I was salivating at the thought of it because I found Lakha’s role the best in the film. In fact, I loved Lakha’s role more than Aamir Khan’s lead role because it had a lot of variations. Negative, positive, love angle, jealousy — he had all those emotions. I was told that I would have to audition for the role, and I readily agreed. Right after giving the audition at Aamir Khan’s house in Mumbai, I got a text saying, ‘You are selected for the role’.”
Yashpal Sharma added that he was delighted to bag the role in such a big film. He also talked about how he was shocked to hear about his fees for the film. He added that he was called to meet Reena Ji (Aamir Khan’s former wife), who was also the producer of the film, to discuss the budget. He said that his inner voice said that he shouldn’t charge anything below 1 lakh, but when he went inside, he felt that he would even do the role for 50,000. As he entered their office, Reena said to her that they have a tight budget and wouldn’t be able to pay more than 1.5 lakh. Hearing this, Yashpal said that he was quite delighted, but he said that he deserved around Rs 2 lakh, to which she agreed.
Comments
0 comment