Aamir plays a painter, one of the four important characters in the movie and he is also the producer. The other cast members include new faces like Monica Dogra, Prateik and Kriti Malhotra.
Kiran Rao was initially reluctant to cast Aamir Khan in Dhobi Ghat, her low-budget love ballad on Mumbai, because of his iconic status but the debutante director says a "new equation" helped her in going ahead with him.
Aamir plays a painter, one of the four important characters in the movie and he is also the producer. The other cast members include new faces like Monica Dogra, Prateik and Kriti Malhotra.
"We had to find a new equation to work and it took us sometime to find it. It was my new film, I have never directed before...With others it was different because we all were learning but with Aamir I had to settle into that equation and learn not to take him for granted because he is my husband and treat him like others," Kiran told PTI in an interview.
Now that her long-cherished dream is about to be realised, Kiran says she feels like a mother.
"It actually feels like I am about to deliver something that has been growing inside me for so long. It is a feeling of great nurturing. I am concerned about how it will turn out to be," says the director.
Most of the film was shot on real locations and though Aamir's presence created problem in controlling fans and crowd Kiran says they got away by planning in advance.
"It was hard to shoot with Aamir but we planned ahead so most of the times we got away with it. I remember Aamir came in the middle of the night in the building, that is his character's home in the movie. We stayed there for three weeks but no one got to know that Aamir was shooting there," says Kiran.
Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries) premiered in Toronto International Film Festival last year to rave reviews but Kiran admits her film is unlikely to appeal to the general audience. She, however, is confident that the film will open a new space in Indian cinema.
"It is a big risk but we are going for a much smaller release than any other Aamir Khan film. We have made it on a small budget so there is no monetary risk. It is first of its kind and I am hopeful that it will open a new space within Indian cinema," Kiran says about her film, which hits theatres on January 21.
The 'Maximum' city is the fifth character in Rao's movie. It is a metaphor on the city and meditative study of what it means to the people, who come from different parts of the country in search of a new destiny.
Kiran says she wanted to "show the city within the city" and it took her some seven months to recce the locations because she did not want to settle with a wide shot of the metropolis.
"Actually finding locations was like casting another character. We spent some seven months to settle locations. I wanted each location to convey a certain face of the city and the character. Arun's house is in an old locality in Masjid Bandar area called Bhat Bazar, which is a different Mumbai. It was heartwarming to know the old face of the city," she says.
Kiran, who started her Bollywood career as an assistant director in films like Lagaan, Monsoon Wedding, Saathiya and Swades, says she always wanted to be a director. Incidentally, she met Aamir during the shooting of Lagaan.
"I always wanted to be a director. It has been the call of my life. I love art and films are a great meeting place of different forms of arts. So this is something I will continue to do."
Asked about the post Dhobi Ghat scene, Kiran says, "I don't know myself. I will learn as I go along but I have couple of ideas and will start working on them soon. I am hoping to develop them into movies."
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