Was worried about doing role close to my age in 'Dangal': Aamir Khan

Mumbai: Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan was initially in two minds about playing wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat in his upcoming film "Dangal" as he had to look old.

"For 'Dangal' I had to play a 55-year-old man which is closer to my real life age. I was worried about that. As I was playing young parts in (other) films and for 'Dangal' I will have to play an old man, be fat, grey hair. So, I was worried about my future," Aamir told reporters here at the movie's poster launch.

The 51-year-old star felt that he could do "Dangal" after a few years.

"I felt I can do this film after five-six or eight-ten years. I felt practically I shouldn't do the film but my heart felt I should do it."

The story of the biopic, however, moved the actor so much that he decided to do it.

"Then I asked Nitesh Tiwari (director) to meet and felt I should just do the film and not think about anything. I have faith in my audience that they will understand that whatever look I have is for a film and I am just being honest to it (the role). I just followed my heart," he added.

Aamir said he requested Tiwari to shoot the older version of the character first.

"My only request to Nitesh (Tiwari) was... I was fit that time so we could have gone in order by shooting young portion first then old look. I wanted Nitesh to shoot old part first where I had to gain weight and then young portion later," he said.

"I told Nitesh I am doing this because if we shoot old portion later I will not have a reason to lose 97-100 kg weight. The reason to lose weight will be for this film (Dangal), there will be pressure and goal to reduce the weight. So we did reverse thing started with gaining weight for old look and then losing it for young look," he added.

According to the "PK" star, gaining weight was much easier than losing it.

"It is easy to gain weight. One can eat all tasty food items. I had it for six months. I enjoyed process of gaining weight. Then came the task to lose it," he said.

"I had great team including my nutritionist and trainer - Rakesh and Rahul Bhatt. I was training even when I was fat it is difficult to train that time. Both pushed me to work hard."

The actor-producer said his director wife Kiran Rao jokes about varied looks that he often sports for his films.

"Kiran often jokes I am not the same person she got married to ten years ago as I am into some or the other look. In 'Dangal', I like elderly, old look. Kiran also likes this look."

Aamir revealed his actor friend Salman Khan helped him in getting the film's title.

"For the title also we learnt that the rights of the title 'Dangal' is with Puneet Issar and I knew he is close to Salman. I called up Salman and told him we need 'Dangal' title and that it is with Puneet. I asked Salman to arrange for a meeting with Puneet," Aamir said.

"Salman was working on 'Sultan' and he was helping me with the title of 'Dangal' and people were saying we were fighting as our films are on wrestling. It is because of Salman that we got 'Dangal' title. We met Puneet and he was sweet enough to give us the title."

The superstar revealed there are six songs in the film.

"There is a promotional video that we will shoot end of this month. This song might not be there in the film."

"Dangal" is set to release on December 23.