Why Aamir chose to showcase a documentary as an unreleased movie…

Anything associated with Aamir Khan has to be big. The superstar surely believes in making it large. The build up to the release of his so-called unreleased movie on & Pictures was huge. Front page ads in all national newspapers and not to forget the multiple promos that did the rounds on television channels where Aamir was weaving suspense around the yet unreleased movie of his glorious career. Evidently, the marketing strategy gathered huge eyeballs and saw a definite surge in TRPs. Unfortunately, it all came down crashing when the name of movie to be released was announced. It turned out to be a tepid documentary called Chale Chalo, directed by Satyajit Bhatkal which documents the making of Lagaan. The revelation sent shockwaves all across. One senior journalist who also happens to be the Editor of a very reputed film magazine left the show even before it had started out of sheer boredom. For others who stuck on till the very end, it was akin to being cheated for the advertisement promised and the actual product delivered didn't match expectations. The perfectionist Aamir, however remained unmoved and defended himself by saying that this was the only way to showcase a documentary in India and get maximum people to watch the same. When quizzed why he resorted to such a dubious marketing gimmick, Aamir said, "As a creative person, I try to make different things creatively. And I make those things which I trust and have faith that it would be liked by people as well. Now there are things which are not usually preferred to be watched by people. For example, if I tell you that I am making a socially relevant show on girl child abortion, I am sure no one would be interested in seeing it. But when I tell you that I am making a show called Satyamev Jayate and don’t reveal anything before hand, people come and watch it. There is a certaint level of curiosity attached. And if you don't like anything, you are free to switch it off. You have the remote in your hand. So when I am inviting someone to see something, it should be done in such a fashion that everyone should feel that they want to associate themselves with Aamir Khan. Now documentary film is such that no one watches it here. I think either it is not imbibed in our culture or we don’t have a habit of watching it. So I want this thing to be promoted well and people start watching it on a larger scale. I think today people saw a documentary on a larger scale. So this will create an addiction towards documentary which showcases real life and real emotions. So this was my way of introducing people to a documentary film." Aamir admitted that had he disclosed about screening the documentary before hand, people wouldn't have watched it as much. "If I had already told people that this is a documentary film, then people would have never watched it. They get afraid of the word documentary. Whereas documentary film is entertaining, I feel. So we thought the less we tell people, the more better it would be. And then it is up to people if they want to watch it or not." Although Chale Chalo had earlier been released on a small scale, Aamir doesn't consider the previous release as a true one. "It was released on such a small platform that it was akin to remaining unreleased. Not many people saw it. We have 1.2 billion people. So in all practicality, this remained an unreleased movie. In India, we don't have a platform for releasing documentary movies. Thankfully, Zee liked the movie and agreed to beam it and I am thankful to them," said Aamir. Sunday's telecast also saw Karan Johar anchoring the show for Aamir and team. When we asked Aamir if he had chosen Karan as the host, Aamir replied in positive. "Yes, I suggested his name and I am glad that he accepted it. He is a wonderful host," said Aamir before signing off. Well, Aamir proved yet again that when it comes to marketing no one can be smarter and shrewder than him. Not even King Khan.