Tenth Anniversary of Lagaan

It was party time for Aamir Khan Productions, which celebrated its decade in existence, as well as the tenth anniversary of Lagaan.

Almost everyone associated with the Production house - including Abbas Tyrewala, Abhinay Deo, Ashutosh Gowariker and even Bhanu Athaiya - was present to be part of the celebrations, which commenced with the screening of Madness in the Desert, a documentary about the making of Lagaan. Directed by Satyajit Bhatkal, the documentary was almost as long as the movie itself.

Post the screening, director Gowariker and Aamir were visibly emotional as they reminisced about the making of the film, which took around 138 days. They repeatedly said that they were “eternally grateful to each other” for making the film.

Javed Akhtar too joined in the celebration, along with Amitabh Bachchan who lent his voice for the film. “I knew it was a unique film as soon as I watched the first cut,” said Amitabh Bachchan, Praising Gowarikar and Aamir’s courage and faith in the subject.

Aamir also passed around the microphone to the entire starcast of Lagaan, and each of them recounted fun moments from the Lagaan shoot. Gracy Singh looked particularly cheerful throughout the party.

Aamir was a gracious host and it was a pleasure to see him giving ample credit to his ex-wife, Reena Dutta, for being “the greatest support system and driving force” during the making of Lagaan.

Also present at the event were Kiran Rao, Avantika and Imran Khan, Aamir’s kids - Ira and Junaid, Omkar Das Manikpuri, music composers Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Tisca Chopra, Manjari Phadnis, Vir Das and Siddharth Roy Kapoor.

The two prominent absentees were Anusha Rizvi and Amole Gupte, who Aamir praised immensely for writing the scripts of Peepli Live and Taare Zameen Par, respectively.