May 18, 2026 6:12pm IST
Aamir Khan on Coping with Film Failures: ‘The First Thing I do Is I Accept It’ (EXCLUSIVE)
As an actor and producer, Aamir Khan has had a long, solid reputation for making good films. But not all good films work. Khan, though, has put in more effort than most in the pursuit of making good films. And in experimenting with different genres and subjects, producing and acting in "Sitaare Zameen Par" and starring in "Talaash."
While success and failure are inevitable parts of any creative journey, Aamir believes that accepting failure is essential. On coming to terms with audiences not connect with his work, he says, “The first thing I do is I accept it. It's very important to accept what has happened. I feel when a film doesn't work, the bottom line is simple — that it didn't work.”
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The next step is to understand why the project failed to resonate, a process he describes as both analytical and fascinating. “It's like solving a puzzle,” he explains. “You're trying to figure it out. Which is why one of the things I do with my directors very often is I discuss the film with them before the release. Did we end up making what we set out to make? How successful do we think we are before the release? And that's a very important discussion to have because then you're able to judge the film creatively.”
It's a process that Aamir has always been following, as he revealed in the previous interview with Variety India. The most valuable it proved to be was during “PK” when both Aamir and Rajkumar Hirani realized that parts of the second half bore thematic similarities to “OMG: Oh My God,” which had been released not long before “PK” was scheduled to hit theatres.
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“The plot was totally different, but some of the themes were similar. I remember Raju (Hirani) reacting and saying, ‘Sometimes that happens, but we must change our second half.’ So we changed the second half. Before the release, we were not totally happy with the film because the original second half was slightly different from what we have made. But this was the best we could have done. Luckily, the film worked and it was a big success,” Aamir had revealed, asserting that an open and honest creative discussions with directors remains one of the most important aspects of his filmmaking approach.
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