Bollywood Flashback: When Amrish Puri Yelled at Aamir Khan!

On March 14th 2016, superstar Aamir Khan celebrates his 51’st birthday, thus we decided to revisit a small incident which happened to him much before the release of his first hit film ‘Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak’ (1988).

Mohammed Aamir Hussain Khan aka Aamir Khan’s first association with Hindi films began with ‘Yaadon Ki Baarat’ (1973), where he played the younger version of Tariq and featured in the title song, sung by Lata Mangeshkar. Later, in the early 80’s era, he decided to venture into the world of Hindi films as an actor. His uncle Nasir Hussain and father Tahir Hussain were prominent names in the film industry, due to their films like ‘Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai’, ‘Caravan’, ‘Yaadon Ki Baarat’, ‘Hum Kisise Kum Naheen’, ‘Anamika’, ‘Zakhmee’ and many more.

When Aamir expressed his desire to work in the film industry, his father and uncle were dead against the idea. He was not interested in completing his graduation but wanted to work with his uncle as an assistant. Nasir Hussain refused to take him and so there was a big uproar. They used to fight over this late into the nights. Finally, they mutually agreed on Aamir doing both, study and work.

There was also an agreement that Aamir will be treated like all other assistants and crew members. At that time, Nasir Hussain was shooting ‘Manzil Manzil’ (1984) with Sunny Deol and Dimple Kapadia. Initially, Aamir failed to understand the shooting atmosphere, but later got into the action department. Being a born perfectionist Aamir got all the paperwork together. He made up property lists, the detailing of scenes and call-sheets. This style of working was hardly seen in those days. Most of the scenes, dialogues and action detailing used to develop over the sets at the last minute as per the demand of the producers and the stars. Aamir tried to introduce this new style of film-making in his uncle’s production house, which was appreciated by the actors and the technicians involved in the film.

Even his uncle Nasir Hussain, was highly impressed with Aamir and that’s when he offered him to assist him in his next mega star cast film, ‘Zabardast’ (1985) starring Sanjeev Kumar, Sunny Deol, Rajiv Kapoor, Jaya Pradha, Rati Agnihotri, Tanuja and Amrish Puri.  Even on the sets of ‘Zabardast’, Aamir kept his fine detailing intact and was totally involved with the action scenes related to the film. While most of the actors and technicians knew Aamir’s relationship with Nasir Hussain, there were few, who did not know anything about Aamir. For them, he was one of the young kid who was assisting the legendary director. One of them was the veteran actor Amrish Puri, who did not know anything about Aamir and was totally involved in his work. Nasir Hussain was shooting an action scene with Amrish Puri and at that time Aamir was in charge of action continuity. His job was to check the finest detail related to the scenes and match it up as per the scenes which were shot earlier. Aamir checked into the basic details and once everything was set, he gave his instructions to Amrish Puri over the placement of his hands based on the last shot scene. Amrish Puri was engrossed in the scene and in that process, kept forgetting the continuity. Aamir being a hard-core perfectionist, kept reminding him and after few reminders all of a sudden Amrish Puri lost his cool.

He started screaming at Aamir in front of the whole unit. His yellings continued for a while and there was a pin-drop silence on the set. As a respect for the veteran actor, Aamir kept his head down and took the yelling without uttering a single word. Finally, Nasir Hussain mildly intervened to say that Aamir is just doing his job. It’s at that time Amrish Puri came back into his senses and realized the mistake he did in the heat of the moment. Later, he apologized to Aamir and appreciated his style and detailing. This might be a small incident in the lives of Amrish Puri and Nasir Hussain, but, as per the ace Khan, he always remembers this incident with warmth as he felt it was sweet and decent of his uncle Nasir Hussain to step in and talk in his favour, that too, against such a big actor.

Fun Facts:

Aamir Khan & Amrish Puri never worked opposite each other in any  film. Though, ‘Damini’ had Aamir Khan in a guest appearance, where Amrish Puri was playing a pivotal role they were never in the same frame.

Director Priyadarshan wanted to make his debut film ‘Muskurahat’ with Aamir Khan and Pooja Bhatt. Later, due to producers’ pressure the cast was replaced by Jay Mehta and Revathy. Amrish Puri had a very important role in this film, as he played a positive role after portraying villainous roles for more than a decade.

‘Zabardast’ (1985), was initially launched with Dilip Kumar, Dharmendra, Rishi Kapoor, Asha Parekh, Zeenat Aman, Tina Munim, Raj Kiran, Kajal Kiran and Amjad Khan in 1979. The movie was launched with a huge set and grand publicity. Sadly, the film got shelved and later was revived with a different star cast.

Along with ‘Yaadon Ki Baarat’ (1973), one can spot Aamir Khan playing the younger role of Mahendra Sandhu, in the movie ‘Madhosh’ (1974).

Mahendra Sandhu is known as the original ‘Agent Vinod’ (1977) of Bollywood.