Aamir Khan and Anushka Sharma starrer comedy drama PK remains one of the most successful and celebrated films of their career. The Rajkumar Hirani directorial is a sharp commentary on fake godmen with lots of humor. Today as the film clocks nine years of its release, let us take a look at one of the most interesting behind-the-scenes stories from the film.
Aamir Khan’s tryst with paans in PK
Aamir Khan and Anushka Sharma starrer PK was released theatrically on December 19, 2014. On this occasion, here’s a look at how Aamir prepared for the role of an alien for the Rajkumar Hirani directorial. In the film, his character is seen consuming paan all the time. Turns out, Mr. Perfectionist decided not to fake it and did that for real. According to multiple reports, Aamir chews paan for every scene. On some shooting days, he reportedly consumed around 100 paans in order to maintain the right color on his lips. The result is that his lips are bright red for a sizable duration of the film. To fulfill such steady demand of paans, there was a paan seller always present on the set.
As per The Times of India, Aamir said: “In real life paan is not a habit, I have it once in a while but for this film I chew paan for every scene. I would at times eat about 100 paans in a day. We had a paanwala on the sets.” The actor also consumed 10-15 paans before the shoot to maintain the color and also had paans during shoot.
More about PK
PK is directed by Rajkumar Hirani and written by him alongside Abhijat Joshi. Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Hirani serve as its producers and the film stars Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, Sushant Singh Rajput, Boman Irani, Saurabh Shukla, and Sanjay Dutt. PK follows the story of a humanoid alien who lands on Earth and tries to find the meaning of religion.
Upon release, the film turned out to be a major critical and commercial success, becoming one of the highest-grossing Indian films of all time. It also received praise for tackling such a sensitive issue with humor.
Aamir Khan learned Bhojpuri for PK
In the film, Aamir can be seen speaking the Bhojpuri language. In order to get the accent and its nuances right, he was trained by Bhojpuri TV writer Shanti Bhushan who was also present during the shoot. As a result, he can be seen speaking fluent Bhojpuri in PK. Another piece of interesting trivia is that the film requested random people on the streets of Rajasthan for the outfits. In favor of money or new outfits, the locals provided the actor with the local dresses which he wore in the film.
Aamir and Raju Hirani have worked together on 3 Idiots and PK and both of them turned out to be major successes. As PK clocks nine, it’s the best time to revisit this well-made, well-acted and well-intentioned film.
