It may have been India Inc’s Oscars and no awards for him to be won, but that did not deter Bollywood sensation Aamir Khan from deviating from the established code of behaviour. Much like his films. In a sea of ties and sharp suits, Aamir stood out in his chic white Lucknowi kurta and chucked his prepared ‘lateral thinking’ talk to speak on his own version of ‘Inclusive Growth’. Following on from speeches of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, highways minister Kamal Nath and commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma’s on the subject of ‘Inclusive Growth’, Aamir decided to give the subject, usually viewed from the prism of economics, his own distinctive spin.
“You all are important people, people who can make a difference to our society and to our lives, to our country,” Khan told some 400 CEOs and industrialists assembled for the ET Awards.
“From the time the child is born, we subconsciously instill in him a spirit of competition and children grow up with this feeling of competitiveness. As a result, we end up developing a society, which thinks only of itself, we think selfishly,” said Khan, as he exhorted his Rancho message from his latest blockbuster ‘3 Idiots’: encourage the path of excellence and success will follow.
Appealing to parents, Khan said if there was a change in attitude instilled from a young age, it would produce a different society. Citing examples from his movies, notably Tare Zameen Par, Khan urged parents to expand the ‘inclusive growth’ message to inculcate in children an accommodative attitude towards others with disabilities and learning difficulties.
“We don’t include them in our mainstream education. A child who is born with a problem has to be included. If it starts from there, it will percolate right through. Yes, the child won’t be able to answer A+B is equal to what, he won’t be able to perhaps memorise things as we do. But so what? He is a child and he needs to be with his friends, children his own age. He has a right to be there and who are we to decide that he does not belong there and has to be put somewhere else?” he asked.
“I think it is unfair of us to even take that away from our own children, the right to sit next to another child, who may have problems and help him. This will ultimately result in inclusion in our society, in our hearts, as we go along our lives. I have followed my heart, done what I believed in, and done that with love, passion, sincerity and caring,” he ended to an applauding audience. Khan’s impassioned extempore speech, reflective of the passion he exudes in his movies, was a far cry from economics and business, but it drew queries from the assembled worthies of India Inc. Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla was keen to know how the actor managed to successfully take up unusual themes and yet turn them into commercial successes. Knitting his eyebrows, Khan said it is always only the story that drives him, not success or failure.
“I just fall in love with the story and I want to be a part of it, just dive into it. I am actually not thinking of what the audience likes. I have no idea what the audience wants, genuinely. I just follow my heart, my instinct. When I am hearing a script or reading it, I am the audience and so I go with my gut and then hope for the best,” he said. Awardee Anand Mahindra, M&M vice chairman and MD, Harvard alumnus and cinema student, stood up to ask if by shunning the standard Bollywood formula he had created a new recipe for success.
“The very nature of my work demands that I reinvent constantly. It would be boring to hear the same story over and over again. So, unusual stories move me emotionally and a good story told well gives each film a potential. It really depends how deep you want to dive,” replied Khan.
To a query from Jayanti Chauhan, the 24-year-old daughter of Ramesh Chauhan and Bisleri director, about whether it was possible to implement the message of his 3 Idiots hit film into India’s schooling system, Khan donned his Rancho hat once again. He said doing away with rote learning and encouraging a questioning mind in a child was the best way to bring about deep-rooted change.
“When you help somebody, when you reach out for somebody, when you bring a smile to somebody’s face, when you help the person who is less privileged than you are, that is when you are going to achieve something. That is when you are really going to be inclusive,” he said.
Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5435059.cms
No comments:
Post a Comment