Reacting to director Anusha Rizvi’s decision to disassociate herself from Peepli Live, actor-producer Aamir Khan said it would be difficult for her to do so because it’s her film. “She has made the film, now removing herself from the film will be difficult for her,” Aamir on Thursday told the reporters at the DVD launch of Peepli Live, which is India’s entry at the Oscars this year.

Rizvi feels critical acclaim and commercial success of the film have boosted Aamir’s fame instead of serving the actual purpose of making the film, so she decided to steer clear of promoting her directorial debut for the Oscar.

But Aamir said: “Every one has his or her opinion, she has her own. As far as my opinion is concerned, I will shoulder all my responsibilities. The film is neither mine nor her, it’s audiences’. I have fulfilled every responsibility as a producer and will do it until death.”

“My point of view is that as it’s such a good film, I should make it reach to a broader spectrum of audience and the message should reach to as many people as possible.”

Asked if Rizvi is shying away from her responsibility, he said: “I can’t comment on that. Each one has their own thoughts; each one has their own take on what their responsibility is. As far I am concerned, I will stick to my responsibilities.”

Peepli Live is a satire on farmers’ suicide in India and how media, politician and bureaucrats individually try to use it for their advantage.

MUMBAI — Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan will be hoping for third time lucky at next year’s Oscars, after the latest movie he produced was chosen as India’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film category.

“Peepli Live” — a biting satire about the divide between rural and urban India and the problem of farmer suicides — beat 26 other films to be submitted for the longlist, Film Federation of India secretary general Supran Sen said.

Khan, who produced the film, welcomed the nomination and said it stood a “very good chance” of success.

Two other films he has produced have previously been selected as India’s official Oscar entry.

“Lagaan” (Tax) — a period drama about a group of Indian villagers who challenge their British colonial masters to a cricket match — made the final five in 2002 but was beaten by the Bosnian film “No Man’s Land”.

“Taare Zameen Par” (Stars On Earth), acclaimed for raising awareness about dyslexia, failed to be shortlisted in 2009.

Khan also starred in “Rang de Basanti” (Colour Me Saffron), about a British documentary maker who wants to make a film about Indian freedom fighters, which was India’s entry in 2007 but again did not make the cut.

Only two other Indian films have been shortlisted for the Best Foreign Language Film category: director Mehboob Khan’s classic “Mother India” in 1958 and US-based director Mira Nair”s “Salaam Bombay!” (Hello Bombay!) in 1989.

Khan has made a name for himself as one of the Indian film industry’s leading actor-producer-directors, combining offbeat subjects with high-quality production values and expert marketing.

His previous two leading roles, “Ghajini” and “3 Idiots” both beat box office records.

India’s official Oscar entry in 2009 — a Marathi-language film about the father of Indian cinema, “Harischandrachi Factory” — failed to make the shortlist.

Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan’s production “Peepli Live” will be India’s official entry at the Oscars. Peepli Live has been shortlisted in the Best Foreign Film category.

“Peepli Live” is former journalist Anusha Rizvi’s debut as a director and the film has no big name stars, in keeping with Khan’s pledge to promote quality cinema. The movie is satirical take on farmer suicides in India and how media and politicians tackle the issue. Earlier, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with his wife Gursharan Kaur, family members and some close friends also watched the film at the special screening.

Peepli Live,” made by the actor’s production company, follows two poor farmers who face losing their land over an unpaid debt after poor monsoon rains. A local politician suggests they commit suicide so their families get compensation. A journalist overhears one of the farmers apparently urging the other to end his own life, triggering a media frenzy about whether he will go through with it, lampooning India’s sensationalist television news channels.

Read more: Peepli Live will go to the Oscars! – The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Peepli-Live-will-go-to-the-Oscars/articleshow/6621584.cms#ixzz10THdAL5x

The actor, director and producer talks to The Independent Online about his new film ‘Peepli (Live)’, a satire on the mass farmers’ suicide problem facing India.

By Matilda Battersby

When Tom Cruise visited Mumbai to plug his latest film he was referred to in the press as the ‘Aamir Khan of Hollywood’. This might give you an inkling of how enormous Khan’s celebrity is in his native India, although he is lesser-known in this country. When we meet for this interview in a swanky London hotel, the four burly bodyguards dancing attendance are a clear sign that the Lagaan heartthrob is used to being mobbed.

Having had a stellar career as leading man, Khan began working off camera directing and producing movies four years ago. He has since won a Filmfare best director award (the Hindi film industry’s Oscars equivalent), and his 2009 film 3 Idiots is currently the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all-time. He is in London to promote Peepli (Live), a Hindi language film written and directed by Anusha Rizvi, funded by Aamir Khan Productions and produced by Khan himself.

The film is a low-budget satire on the mass suicides of farmers in rural India. Sounds like a hard sell, doesn’t it? But the comical story of Natha (Omkar Das Manikpuri), who having drunk and smoked away his farm decides to kill himself, has been a surprise hit in India. It was the first Indian film to compete at the Sundance Film Festival, was named Best First Feature Film at the Durban International Film Festival, and is thought to have recovered its costs prior to release.

Khan hopes that Peepli’s success will continue when it hits UK cinemas on Friday. “I think the film appeals to an audience that may never have seen an Indian film before,” he said. “When I read the script what first attracted me to it was the humour and the vibrant characters. It was very sensitising for someone like me who was born in, and grew up in, a big city like Mumbai. I knew almost nothing about what was happening in rural India.”

The suicide problem that Khan is talking about is impossible to quantify. According to Khan, who examined a government census, 80,000 farmers in India committed suicide between 1991 and 2001. “The next census report, 2001 to 2011, will be published in two years’ time, but I predict that the numbers will be on a par with the last one. The average hasn’t dropped, as far as I know,” he said.

The suicide epidemic was widely reported in the 1990s after a journalist called P Sainath drew attention to it. More recently, Khan told me, there have been instances where people have threatened self emollition and a journalist has continued to point a camera at them instead of trying to intervene. “This has happened on at least two occasions. So it is quite terrible,” he said. Rizvi, a former television journalist, knows only too well about media pitfalls, and Peepli cleverly portrays a heartless media response.

In the film, a cavalcade of television crews rush to Natha’s farm hoping to catch a live suicide. The ensuing circus turns his home into a zoo, and the journalists are quickly followed by politicians. With elections imminent, local MPs wade in seeking to use Natha’s plight to help swing votes. This is interesting, given that Khan says one of the film’s biggest triumphs is that it has got real politicians talking. “The Prime Minister and at least 200 MPs have seen the film,” he said. “The film takes a caustic and humorous view of what the politicians and media are like. Some of the politicians even admitted to me that this is sometimes how things play out, which they are unhappy about.”

But not everybody has received the film so favourably. There has been some objection among farmers’ groups in agricultural India, who argue that the film trivialises the suicides. Khan looks impatient when I mention this, and says: “This is not a film about farmers’ suicides. It doesn’t go into the issues farmers are facing. It is a film to be viewed as a backdrop to the alarming numbers of suicides which have taken place in the last two decades.”

“I’m entirely in favour of the farmer issues and I believe this film will go a long way in furthering the cause of all people in rural India. For me, Natha could have been cobbler, he could have been a potter; we’re talking about rural India here not just farmers. I believe the film goes a long way in showing their situation.”

Despite being “off-beat for Indian cinema” with a cast of unknown actors, the film’s ultimate success is that it provokes serious consideration of the situation faced by many in rural India, but does so through entertaining characterisation and a great script. As Khan remarks: “The film is interesting because it is truthful in its satire.”

Peepli Live hits UK cinemas 24 September 2010

Actor Aamir Khan, who turned drummer during the music launch of his forthcoming film Peepli Live, said, his childhood dream has come true.

“It was my childhood dream to perform alongside one of those long-haired rockstars and play some instrument. I finally got an opportunity. I thank, Indian Ocean for completing my childhood fantasy,” Aamir said.

It was then, when the drummer of the Indian Ocean band was performing their two songs and asked Aamir to join them and play drums. “I am bored of playing drums and I want someone to play drums for us I want Aamir Khan to come and play the drums,” Amit, the drummer said.

‘Peepli Live’, an Aamir Khan Productions film, directed by Anusha Rizvi, is a satire on farmer suicides. The film is slated for August 13 release.

When Aamir, went on stage to enthral the audience, wife Kiran Rao was seen amused to see Aamir beating the drums. She was seen clapping, swaying, jumping up and down when the perfectionist turned drummer.

The music launch of the film saw some B-town biggies including Karan Johar, Ashutosh Gowariker, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Prasoon Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani, Rani Mukherji, Atul Kulkarni and Ronnie Screwvala.