Following a 16-year marriage, Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao confirmed their split in 2021. Nevertheless, the former pair is still friendly and recently collaborated on the popular movie Laapataa Ladies.
Along with Aamir, Kiran co-produced and directed the film. The actor has now
talked candidly about their initial encounter on the Lagaan set.
Kiran Rao talked candidly about how she came to collaborate with Aamir Khan on the Lagaan film sets during a recent media chat. The director remembered receiving a call from Reema Kagti asking whether she would like to participate. At the time, Kiran was between jobs, and the three-month timeline was anticipated. She consented to come even though at the time she hadn't seen "a lot" of Hindi movies.
Speaking about the "huge risk" Aamir was taking on the movie, she explained that it was a sports movie set in Awadhi, a very different dialect, 100 years ago. "When I was in charge of getting all of them into layers and layers of their outfits, it was quite an experience. It was like a film school for me,” revealed Kiran.
The director, who worked as an assistant director on the Lagaan sets, remembers that the three months of filming turned into six months. She mentioned that the year had been very hectic for her as she had completed Monsoon Wedding in addition to Lagaan. "Then Reema and Zoya were doing Dil Chahta Hai, so they sent me to Goa for extra casting,” she further revealed.
Kiran revealed that she got back in touch with Aamir Khan while he was filming Mangal Pandey and she was working on Swades. "That’s when we started dating," she told while adding that after Swades ended, Aamir started working on Rang De Basanti.
Kiran also remembered that she traveled with Aamir for two or three months while he was filming Rang De Basanti, during which time she began scripting Dhobi Ghat. "I actually wrote my film Dhobi Ghat when Aamir was shooting for his film,” told Kiran.