Aamir Khan thought someone was ‘playing a prank’ on him when he got a script called ‘The Falling’ during Mangal Pandey’s shoot | Bollywood News

There are few producers in Hindi cinema with an eye as sharp as Aamir Khan’s. Known for backing unconventional films, his production slate includes titles like, Dhobi Ghat, Delhi Belly, Talaash: The Answer Lies Within, and Secret Superstar. Each dinct in tone and subject. Among these, Peepli Live stands out as a political satire that took on the farmer crisis, rising suicides, and the media circus surrounding them. It marked the directorial debut of Anusha Rizvi and earned both critical acclaim and cult status. But as Aamir recently revealed on his new YouTube channel, Aamir Khan Talkies, the film almost didn’t get made.
While shooting Mangal Pandey, which was then titled The Rising, Aamir received an unexpected email from Anusha — then a journal — with a script attached, titled The Falling. Amused the coincidence in titles, he initially ignored it. “I thought somebody was playing a prank,” he said in a behind-the-scenes video. However, Rizvi persed. “There was some sincerity in her mails, which made me say yes to lening to the story.”
Aamir was intrigued the narrative but few things in the story didn’t make sense to him. He was also unsure about backing a first-time filmmaker for such a complex narrative. “She had a background in journalism. I wasn’t sure if she would be able to handle fiction filmmaking,” Aamir said. What followed was an unconventional test: he asked Anusha to shoot select scenes from the script within a fixed timeline and present the footage.
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The shoot was far from easy. With limited resources, no access to real locations or actors, and just ten days to wrap, Anusha had little to work with. But she delivered. The test footage convinced Aamir that she was more than capable and he decided to back the project. “She was able to achieve things which were very difficult to achieve… her ability to bring things to life in realism was amazing,” he said, recalling how impressed he was with her work.
Peepli Live became one of the most talked-about films of its time, cementing Aamir Khan’s reputation as a discerning producer — and earning the dinction of being India’s official entry to the Oscars.