Aamir Khan had insisted Parikshit Sahni to slap him properly in PK.
Parikshit Sahni shared an interesting anecdote with Aamir Khan from the sets of Rajkumar Hirani’s PK.
Aamir Khan is called the ‘Perfectionist of Bollywood’. The actor goes to every possible extent to make his character look convincing on screen. Be it shaving his head and building a sculpted physique for Ghajini or opting to go overweight instead of going for a bodysuit in Dangal, Aamir Khan has done it all. He is even known to employ unconventional marketing strategies for his films. Today, we are going to tell you about the lengths he went to make his character look convincing in PK. Parikshit Sahni, who has been a regular on Rajkumar Hirani’s set recalled how Aamir Khan insisted him to slap him genuinely in one of the movie scenes.
Speaking with Rajshri Unplugged, Parikshit Sahani shared, “I had to slap Aamir in one of the scenes of that film. Aamir is a fantastic actor, I really like him. You slap me.’ I said, ‘How can I hit you?’ He said, ‘No, no you must.’ The credit goes to him. The first time I hit him, he stopped and said, ‘You really hit me.’ Very few actors do this. He is a great actor. He is a very very great actor. That is because he knows the script very well.”
PK was Aamir Khan’s second collaboration with Rajkumar Hirani after 3 Idiots. It was a science fiction drama where Aamir played an alien lost on earth and his encounter with contrasting faiths and beliefs that humanity had. Aamir’s alien character had pointed ears and red lips. Now, any other actor would have painted their lips red to make their character look as the director required. But this is Aamir Khan we are talking about.
So, the actor went ahead and did something that would naturally redden his lips. He ate paan or betel leaves to redden his lips during the shoot. It has been reported that during the shooting of PK, Aamir Khan chewed on about 10-15 paan every day. On his instructions, there used to be a paanwala present on the sets of the film every day to provide him with his daily dose of paan. It gave the desired results of having red lips. It shows Aamir’s untethering dedication towards his craft.
PK, although a critical and commercial success, was embroiled in some controversy as right-wing factions felt that the movie hurt religious sentiments. Even Baba Ramdev called for a boycott of the film as the movie depicted self-proclaimed godmen as conmen. Nevertheless, PK, which also starred Anushka Sharma and the late Sushant Singh Rajput, earned Rs 770 crore at the box office worldwide.
