Lal Singh Chadha: When Aamir Khan was inspired by his son instead of Tom

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan‘s 1994 Hollywood film ‘Forrest Gump’, ‘Lal Singh Chadha‘ is going to release on August 11.

The film also stars Kareena Kapoor Khan and is directed by ‘Secret Superstar’ director Advaita Chandan.

According to the Indian newspaper Indian Express, before the film’s release, Aamir Khan revealed in a media interaction that at one point during the film’s pre-production, he wanted his son Junaid Khan to play the lead role of Lal Singh Chadha.

When a journalist asked Mr. ‘Perfectionist’ if he had seen Tom Hanks, the hero of the English film Forrest Gump, he replied in the negative and said that he had never thought of watching the film.

‘I had seen Forrest Gump a long time ago but when the script came to me, it became my project. We never sat down and watched the original movie.

‘During the shooting we watched some scenes for reference but never saw the entire film. However, a strange thing must have happened during the making of the film.’

Aamir Khan then added that although Advaita Chandan has done a great job with the superstar singer, he was not sure if he would give the project to him considering a difficult film like Lal Singh Chadha. And so they asked them to form their own team and shoot some selected scenes.

At the same time, Junaid had returned from Los Angeles (LA) after his training and on Aamir Khan’s advice, Advaita Chandan shot test videos with Junaid.

Aamir smiled and added that it thus became a test for both of them. According to Aamir, he was shocked when he saw the test video with his ex-wife Kiran Rao.

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Describing Junaid’s performance as brilliant, Aamir said that he saw Lal in his son.

‘I knew my chance was gone. Laal had that innocence in her while I had to act her. I showed the film to around 100 people including my family, friends and colleagues from Raju Hirani, Karan Johar to Aditya Chopra and 98 people felt that I should cast them in the film.’

However, the film’s scriptwriters, actors Atul Kulkarni and Aditya Chopra were adamant that Aamir Khan should do the film instead of them.

He argued that ‘the film was not plot driven but its story was staged and thus a new actor should not act in it. After long arguments, I finally agreed with them.’

Aamir Khan said that instead of Tom Hanks for Lal Singh Chadha, he was impressed by Junaid’s performance.

The Bollywood actor further said that his son got the right style for the role and he chose the same style for his acting.

If you are wondering how Junaid Khan reacted to this, Aamir Khan said that his son is quite a practical person and he himself was against doing the film as he felt it was too much for a new actor. It is a budget project.

However, Aamir Khan said that this incident may have been disappointing for the young actor but it must have taught him an important lesson.

Aamir Khan said: ‘Maybe sometimes you are really good but the timing is not right.’

He also admitted that as a father this situation was quite sad for him but he had to do it for the sake of the film.

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