Filmmaker Apoorva Lakhia, who worked as an assistant director on Aamir Khan’s iconic film Lagaan, recently shared several behind-the-scenes anecdotes from the film’s challenging shoot. In a new interaction, Apoorva revealed that he had to hit Aamir Khan with a ball on his head 25 times to get one shot right. He also spoke about Aamir’s grit and commitment, recalling how the actor continued shooting despite badly injuring his foot during the climax scene.
Speaking on Cyrus Broacha’s YouTube channel, Apoorva recounted the time he was tasked with hitting Aamir with a ball. He said, “There was a scene in which I was in charge of hitting Aamir with a ball. It was the scene where he gets hurt on the head with the ball. The DOP told me to hit Aamir hard so the timing during the scene had to be perfect and Aamir and my timing, in the beginning, was not correct because he would not turn in time and the ball would hit his eye, face. 25 times we had to do it before we got that shot correct.”
He also shared a moment from the climax sequence where Aamir injured his foot while running, but didn’t stop until the shot was completed. Apoorva said, “I remember, Anil Mehta (DOP) was looking through the camera and Anil’s reaction was ‘oh ****’. We don’t know what had happened. And Aamir didn’t stop. He took the entire run. He came out to the other side, sat down on the ground and we realised, his entire skin of the foot had come off. But he just tied up and he carried on.”
In an earlier conversation on Friday Talkies, Apoorva had revealed how Lagaan’s shooting schedule extended drastically due to its scale and unexpected hurdles. He said, “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. We started filming during freezing cold temperatures, and continued to shoot in frightfully hot temperatures too.”
Before working on Lagaan, Apoorva Lakhia had served as an assistant director with renowned Hollywood filmmakers like Ang Lee, Michael Douglas, Mira Nair, Meg Ryan, and Tobey Maguire. After his Hollywood stint, he joined the team of Lagaan, which proved to be a turning point in his career. Post Lagaan, Apoorva went on to direct several Hindi films, including Shootout at Lokhandwala, Ek Ajnabee, Toofan, and Haseena Parkar.
