Actor Yashpal Sharma says he wouldn’t have performed any character aside from Lakha in Lagaan even when he had been given an opportunity. “The two main roles of hero and villain – Bhuvan and Captain Andrew Russell, were already given to Aamir Khan and Paul Blackthorne. After that, the only character that was worth doing was Lakha,” Sharma solely advised indianexpress.com.
Lagaan was directed by Ashutosh Gowariker and marked Aamir Khan’s first movie as a producer. It was additional nominated within the Best Foreign Language Film class on the 2002 Academy Awards. On 15 June finishing 20 years of Lagaan, Yashpal Sharma went into reminiscence of enjoying the antagonist within the blockbuster movie.
“The casting of Lagaan was already done. Finally I got a call from Aamir Khan Productions. I thought someone was doing mischief. But I came to know that Ashutosh Gowariker wants to see me. I met him at Aamir’s office and in four hours he walked around the room telling me the whole story. I will never forget it because you won’t find a director who has injected the story so deeply into himself, that he hasn’t even seen the script,” Sharma recalled how he was so candid concerning the story with Gowariker’s candidness. had been amazed.
Lakha, a woodcutter, was one of many major males of the village, who had his eyes on Gauri (Gracy Singh) and did the whole lot to impress her. And since Gauri was in love with Bhuvan (Aamir Khan), Lakha needed to interrupt Bhuvan’s cricket recreation towards the British till he had a change of coronary heart and took the aspect of the individuals of Champaner.
Yashpal Sharma stated that he felt that Lakha was the one function that had some dimensions, however was undecided if it will be obtainable. “Ashutosh advised me that he desires me to audition just for Lakha. I could not imagine it as a result of I used to be nonetheless a struggler. I’ve simply completed a number of movies like Shool, Arjun Pandit, Hazara Chaurasi Ki Maa and Samar. I auditioned for it and left the workplace. Within 5 minutes I obtained a message that I had been chosen.”
According to Sharma, Gowariker was utterly impressed and despatched his audition clip to Aamir, who was then in Chennai with music director AR Rahman. But the tough half for Sharma was his remuneration.
Yashpal Sharma’s Lakha sported grey shades in Lagaan. (Photo: Screenshot/Netflix)
Sharing an fascinating story, Sharma revealed that after his choice, Gowariker requested him to satisfy Reena Dutta, the then spouse of Aamir Khan, who was the producer of Lagaan. “Though I will demand Rs one lakh as it is a big production. Then I thought what if they refused and signed someone else. 80,000 rupees came to my mind. Ultimately I thought I would close it for Rs 50,000. Also because I had no work, I knew I would still have done it for Rs 20,000 (laughs). Finally when I met Reena Dutta, she told me that her budget is limited and she is giving Rs 1.5 lakh to each actor. I just grumbled that I wanted at least Rs 2 lakh, and she agreed. I was shocked and happy that I got double what I expected,” Sharma stated.
Yashpal Sharma sported the look that on paper was designed for Lakha. “Ashutosh just asked me to grow my hair,” she stated. Lakha was one of many batsmen of Champaner’s crew.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
