Kiran Rao says failure of Laal Singh Chaddha affected Aamir Khan deeply: ‘It had been a dream project for him’

Filmmaker Kiran Rao has been busy with the promotions of her upcoming film, Laapataa Ladies, which will be released in March 2024. In a new  interview with Zoom, Kiran opened up about why Aamir Khan is not acting in Laapataa Ladies. She also recalled how the actor, who is her ex-husband, was badly affected after his last film, Laal Singh Chaddha, failed at the box office.

Kiran Rao said, “It’s really disheartening, when you put in all the effort, and it doesn’t work, which is what happened with Laal Singh Chaddha. And it definitely affected Aamir quite deeply. It affected all of us because it was a project that had seen so many stages, it had done the Covid-19 rollercoaster. It (Laal Singh Chaddha) had been a dream project for Aamir. He had been working on getting the rights for the script for a decade before we made it.”

She added, “So, it was disappointing. I am really happy that people are responding well on social media (after Laal Singh Chaddha’s OTT release) because I do feel the film did not get as much of a chance. But it did not work and we do have to accept the fact that the audiences did not like it or did not want to see it.

Laal Singh Chaddha(2022) is a comedy-drama directed by Advait Chandan. It is a Hindi remake of the 1994 Hollywood film Forrest Gump. Apart from Aamir Khan, the film features Kareena Kapoor, Naga Chaitanya and Mona Singh. In 2022, Laal Singh Chaddha landed on Netflix without any fanfare, just some weeks after its theatrical release in AugustUsually, when a film lands on OTT, stars do another round of promotions or interviews and send out social media promos to generate a buzz around the release.  

Laal Singh Chaddha faced widespread boycott calls and did not work well at the box office. The boycott trend against Laal Singh Chaddha began after Aamir Khan’s 2015 interview – where he said that his then-wife Kiran Rao had suggested they move out of India because of ‘growing intolerance’ – had resurfaced and caught attention on social media