Anusha wants to stay away from Peepli...

Like all superstars, Aamir Khan attracts crowds and controversies alike for his films – and these days, irrespective of whether he’s acting in them or not.
That his backing put a low-budget film like “Peepli Live” on Bollywood’s ‘hit’ list is not enough to save the star from the flak that’s come his way from the film’s director Anusha Rizvi and her husband and co-director of “Peepli Live”, Mahmood Farooqui.Instead of jumping on to the Oscar bandwagon, the husband-wife duo has said “we removed ourselves from “Peepli” because, it’s difficult to disassociate a superstar producer from the film.”
Anusha’s phone was switched off when TOI tried to contact her, but she and Farooqui had reportedly stopped participating in the film in its post-production stage because, well, there was too much of Aamir in what they feel should have been their film.
It’s not the first time that Aamir’s involvement in the filmmaking process at the cost of the directors’ cut has come under the scanner. The scriptwriter and director of “Taare Zameen Par” – Amol Gupte – was sacked midway because Aamir, also the producer of the film, did not feel he was doing justice to the subject. While Aamir went on to make an acclaimed directorial debut, Gupte was credited as ‘creative director’. And while Aamir was not the producer of “3 Idiots”, Chetan Bhagat took him on as well over the question of getting only a fleeting mention in the rolling credits of the movie.
Interestingly, in all cases, the controversies blow up only after Aamir’s films – as actor, producer or director – gained commercial success. Aamir remained unavailable for comment.
What they’ve been saying
I threatened to quit 20 times... I didn’t deliberately choose to keep a low profile. My producers thought I was arrogant. I don’t think I am –Mahmood Farooqui
“Peepli Live” is definitely an opinionated, political film and if Aamir wishes to espouse a cause, I would like to know. If he wants to do so, we should pray for him– Anusha Rizvi
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