10 years of 'Aamir': A film which travelled from jewellers to theatres

The first film of a director without film industry connections can be quite a challenge and Raj Kumar Gupta faced this while trying to get his debut "Aamir" financed.

Released a decade ago on June 6, "Aamir" chronicled the story of a young Muslim man, Dr Aamir Ali, played by Rajeev Khandelwal, who returns to Mumbai from the United Kingdom and finds himself at the mercy of extremists intending to carry out a bombing in the city.

The film garnered rave reviews and a strong word-of-mouth.

In an interview with PTI, Gupta talks about how a film with several first timers--director, music composer Amit Trivedi, cinematographer Alphonse Roy and even producer-- was put together.

"I recall narrating the script to a jeweller in Zaveri Bazaar, in the hope that somebody would finance the film. That is one incident which I remember clearly. Then there was a merchant who I had approached.

"At that point, you are just hoping that somewhere people exist who wanted to make a film but never got the opportunity and now might come together to make a film. I did all of that," he says.

People believed that "Aamir" was adapted from a Filipino film "Cavite" but Gupta says it was "neither an official adaptation nor inspired by any film."
"Aamir", the director says, was born in the post 9/11 era where the "world was polarised and things had changed even in India."
"The world was looking at a particular community in a certain way. Between 2001-2004, there were so many things which were happening in India and around the world, the story was born out of those circumstances... It was a very volatile period and I was mostly inspired from the world that existed then."
The film was shot in 22 days, between 7AM to 5 PM, on a budget of RS 1.75 crore and a "tight schedule."
"It was all shot on real locations, those were areas which weren't easy to shoot. To execute that was a challenge but since it was our first film, we were passionate. Everyday I went to shoot, I thought it was my privilege. So I looked forward to that challenge."
"Aamir means a leader, someone who sets an example. As directors and writers, we are always looking at the depth of a name or a character. While I was writing the script, I was trying to find motivation for the character and his journey so the name came from there."