FORREST RENEWAL
| Life is like… a golgappa in the Hindi remake of Forrest Gump.
It was an adaptation that really surprised me,” Aamir Khan tells Teasers. The celebrated filmmaker has variously been dubbed the “James Cameron of India” – for the fact that five of his films have topped the country’s all-time box-office chart, including current champ Dangal – and his industry’s Tom Hanks, for his range as an actor. The latter comparison is particularly apt as Khan’s latest film, Laal Singh Chaddha, is a remake of
’94 awards darling Forrest Gump.
It’s been over 12 years in the making. Khan started chasing the rights when prolific Indian actor Atul Kulkarni handed him the script for a Gump remake set in India, written completely on spec. “He’s not a writer, and he’s written an adaptation of Forrest Gump in like 10 days? It felt like a joke,” Khan admits. But the funny business ended there. “When I heard the script, suddenly the whole thing came alive in front of me.”
Director Advait Chandan (Secret Superstar) was Khan’s manager at the time, and describes their long road to making Laal Singh Chaddha – including a meeting with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks during the Bridge Of Spies shoot in 2015 – like something out of Forrest’s whimsical life story. “This film has been a bit like the feather in Forrest Gump,”
says Chandan, still in disbelief. “It went all over the place, and kind of fell into my lap. I don’t know how, or why!”
Though the original is an American classic, the pair saw in Kulkarni’s script the opportunity to “retain the soul” of Robert Zemeckis’ Oscar-winner, while putting the story in a new context. “Every social event is obviously Indian,” explains Khan, who spent an entire month running across the subcontinent for the film, with an injured knee. “The character is the same, and the essence is the same, but the milieu and where it is set – all that is different.”
That means no JFK, no box of chocolates and no bus stop (“In India, you can’t have a conversation at a bus stop. It’s too noisy and crowded – it just won’t happen,” Khan chuckles).
Instead, Laal regales an enraptured audience on a train, sings (!) and encounters famous Indian figures from the ’70s till almost present day. “I often think of it like a cover song,” says Chandan. “With an Indian flavour.”
Reuniting with his 3 Idiots co-star Kareena Kapoor as Rupa, the remake’s Jenny, it is only now occurring to Khan that his work as Laal will inevitably be compared to one of the most singular character performances of the last 30 years. “I really love the way [Hanks] played it. But I didn’t think of the comparison,” Khan nods. “I was just doing what I thought Laal was.”
‘I often think of it like a cover song – with an Indian flavour’ ADVAIT CHANDAN
LAAL SINGH CHADDHA OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 12 AUGUST.