Rajdeep with Aamir: Segment 1

His film Rang De Basanti made waves and received rave reviews. But now, the actor – considered Bollywood's method actor - has come under sharp criticism for taking his reel-life character too seriously. His involvement and comments on the Sardar Sarovar Dam issue invited the wrath of Gujarat's polity and his latest film Fanaa has been blacked-out in the state. In a candid interview with CNN-IBN Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai, Aamir 'Citizen' Khan clarifies his stand.

Rajdeep: Hello and welcome to a very special programme with a very special guest. He is the man in the news, a celebrated actor, a producer and also importantly a citizen of India. Tonight, we bring you 'Citizen Khan' - the one and only Aamir Khan. Thank you very much for joining us. Is that a fair thing to say that you are a citizen first and then an actor?

Aamir: Yes, I think that is very fair. I'd like to look upon myself as a citizen first-of the country and of the society.

Rajdeep: And does that drive everything that you do, both off-screen and on-screen? Is there a passion for being involved in life, in civil society, in public life?

Aamir: I would like to be.

Rajdeep: You would like to be involved in public life?

Aamir: Well, in society definitely.

Rajdeep: And reflect that even perhaps through your cinema...

Aamir: I am sure that it is something that happens automatically. It is something that gets into my subconscious.

Whatever happens around us in the society affects us and then it comes out in the way we live, the way we behave and in the work that we do.

Rajdeep: Let's then go straight to the big thing that you are doing at the moment. You are the man in the controversy. I want to start this programme by playing what exactly you said on the Narmada issue, which has lead to your film Fanaa being banned in Gujarat, which has made you a target or a 'hate figure' for some. Let's just hear what you said originally on the Narmada issue. (see box) You took up the Narmada issue or atleast you identified yourself with the Narmada Bachao Andolan. Was that a spontaneous, on the spur decision or did you think it over through?

Aamir: It was a very spontaneous decision actually. I was in Delhi a week before I gave this interview for the release of a book. When I was going to the venue of the release, I saw these protests happening on the road.

There were two protests happening - one was for the Narmada Bachao Andolan and on the other side of the road were the Bhopal Gas victims. I enquired about both these protests to find out what is happening.

They had been in the news for some time, but since I saw it first hand, I thought I should learn more about it and understand more about it.

Having got a fair idea about what the two were trying to say, I thought that I should lend my support and join them, meet them.

Rajdeep: Was it ideological? Did you feel ideologically inclined to those groups, did you feel a strong sense of being connected?

Aamir: I am not connected to either of the groups. But my common sense told me that the people who have been affected by the gas tragedy should be properly compensated.

And the people who are affected because of the dam should be rehabilitated. My common sense told me that.

Rajdeep: Your common sense may have told you that. But was it a little naive? Because the moment you associate yourself with any group like the Narmada Bachao Andolan, which is a complicated issue, is deeply emotional and emotive in Gujarat in particular and is a political issue, you are open to being targeted. Were you ready for that?

Aamir: Maybe I was naive. But given a second chance, I would do the same thing again. I do not think things through. In fact, I had thought that the political parties would come out and say, ‘Yes, Aamir is right, we should rehabilitate the people who are losing their land because that is why we are here for, that is why we have been elected’. That is what my common sense told me.

Rajdeep: You know how politics plays out. Surely Aamir Khan is not completely divorced from the way politics plays out. In a state like Gujarat, whether it is BJP or Congress, everyone speaks in one voice on the Narmada issue-everyone speaks 'for' the dam.

Aamir: I am not speaking against the dam in any case. For the past one month I have not been speaking against the dam.

I have very clearly said that I am speaking only for the rehabilitation of the people who are affected by the dam.

Rajdeep: Critics say that Aamir was not just naive, but got a little carried away. It was the Rang de Basanti effect. You were an anti-establishment hero in Rang de Basanti. You were again playing that role, though this time 'off-screen'. In a sense you were translating what you did in Rang de Basanti. In fact, you came to the protest with Atul Kulkarni and others. It almost became cinema in real life.

Aamir: Perhaps. Rakeysh Mehra, Atul or Kunal are all friends of mine and when they heard that I was going there, they wanted to come along to support me.

Rajdeep: A bit of the anti-establishment hero?

Aamir: Well, may be. But I don't think that it is relevant. I think that we are going away from the point. The point is that people who have lost their villages, houses and lands have not been properly rehabilitated and still that process is not complete.

There is a report that has come out which The Hindu published. It said that a lot of the rehabilitation work is still to be completed.

Rajdeep: There are two sides to this issue. Did you try and read up and then decide that this is what I wanted to say.

Aamir: Yes, I did actually. I have read as much material as I could find on the net regarding this issue.

In the report, which the Committee did that went for investigation to find out whether the rehabilitation work is going to happen or not or to what extent is it happening present.

Rajdeep: You have made your point. Now let’s just hear what the BJP had to say, particularly in Gujarat, since that is the place where the target has taken place. Let’s hear what the BJP Yuva Morcha leader, Amish Thakkar had to say about Aamir’s involvement on Namarda:

Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra sab logo ko isse faida honewla hai. Sab isthapith ka kaam hone wala hai. Aamir Khan ki salaah ki aur Aamir Khan ki madat ki Gujarat ko zarurat nahih hai.(The people of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra are going to be benefited by it. There are going to be works of establishments. Gujarat doesn’t need Aamir Khan’s help or advice.)

Rajdeep: When you hear those angry voices out in the streets, they were burning effigies of Aamir Khan in Gujarat. Did you feel targeted or isolated?

Aamir: Yes. I certainly felt targeted but I did not feel isolated because a lot of people came in support of me.

I got innumerable text messages wherever I went, in the public, on the road, in the flights that I took, everyone kept saying that we completely support what you are saying. So I did not feel isolated but I felt targeted.

And what I want to say in response to this clip is that certainly a political party or a group can disagree with me.

If I say that people who have lost their land should be rehabilitated and suppose somebody disagrees with me, they should voice their opinions and say what they feel.

I don’t think there is a need to target me because this is a democracy after all and every person has a right to say what he feels.

Secondly I don’t think there is any thing wrong in the first place. BJP has been trying to say that I am against the dam when I am not against the dam.

I hear in the TV that BJP is trying to say that I am against the dam and I do not want the people of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to get water.

I live in Maharashtra and I want everyone to have water. I have nothing against the dam.

All I am saying is that the people who are affected by the dam should be rehabilitated; they cannot be left to die. They are poor farmers because of whom we eat our food, we cannot leave them to die. Are we so insensitive?

Rajdeep: But the moment you do that, you are taking a political position You are saying that you are taking a social position but only a week or two after that there were riots in Vadodara and again you made a statement. You were quoted as saying that you were upset with the fact the government had not done enough to protect the life of innocent citizens.

Aamir:No, I did not make any statement.

Rajdeep: You made no statements on Vadodara but it was there in the papers.

Aamir: I did not make any statement.

Rajdeep: So the only statement which you are saying that you have made politically is on the Narmada issue.

Aamir: Yes.