Raju Guide

The weather’s perfect and scores of eager fans wait to catch a glimpse of the rather shy and reticent Aamir Khan

The star, however is busy on the badminton court, and has eyes for no one — not the fans who crowd the entrance hoping to get his autograph, not his opponents, not anything but the shuttlecock. When he finally takes a breather after his exhaustive session, CT managed to catch him for a few questions.

“Why do you want to interview me? Why don’t you interview my colleagues instead? They play much better than I do,” he starts off, laughing. After much persistence, he relents, and says, “Let’s talk about anything but films, okay?” Great! So, how long has he been playing badminton? “Well, I started playing quite a few years back and have been addicted ever since. I am completely taken in by the sport. Badminton is a great way to de-stress and chill out after a hard day’s work,” says Aamir.

The actor’s lost a lot of weight and does not sport the beefed up Ghajini look anymore. Is this for a new role? “Yeah, after Ghajini, I needed to lose the muscle for my role in Three Idiots since I play a college student in the film. I think it is common knowledge by now that I make sure that I sport a distinct look for every film and hence, the lean-mean look,” says he. So, does he ever have a normal eating day? The grin reappears when he says, “It depends on what you consider normal. I eat a lot and eat healthy food. Like any other person, I too indulge in binging days where I completely let go. The morning after at the gym is a completely different matter though.”

He plays badminton like a pro and at the time of meeting him was all set for a match with the legendary Prakash Padukone in Mumbai on Sunday. What does he love about badminton so much? “Badminton is like ballet dancing. It requires a lot of control, strength, mind play and measured movement. I have played with Prakash before and when he invited me to play this time around, I was elated.”

Aamir says that he also had a blast during the shooting of Three Idiots as the entire cast and crew played badminton during their free time.

Badminton apart, Aamir says his heart also lies in chess, table tennis, tennis and cricket. Wrong profession perhaps? Clearly not, because the box-office indicates otherwise. Has he ever then, thought of investing in the game … a la SRK with the IPL? Says Aamir, “Absolutely not. I’m just a sports lover, not a business man. I don’t think I have the expertise or the inclination.” He adds in conclusion, “I played cricket the other day at the stadium with some of the boys and realised that it is such hard work. Kudos to the Indian team; these boys really work hard.”
The interview may be done, but Aamir still has work to do. The millions of children, adults and even octogenarians stand patiently in line waiting for an autograph and photograph of the chocolate boy, who still doesn’t look a day older than 20 and has a smile that still has the ability to break a million hearts!