Lagaan actor Yashpal Sharma on enjoying Lakha: I used to be able to do the movie for Rs 20,000 however received Rs 2 lakh

Actor Yashpal Sharma says he wouldn’t have performed every other character however Lakha in Lagaan, even when given an opportunity. “The two main roles of hero and villain – Bhuvan and Captain Andrew Russell, were already given to Aamir Khan and Paul Blackthorne. After that, the only character that was worth doing was Lakha,” Sharma completely instructed indianexpress.com.
Lagaan was directed by Ashutosh Gowariker and marked Aamir Khan’s debut as a producer. It additional obtained a nomination in the perfect international language movie class on the Academy Awards 2002. As Lagaan clocks 20 years on June 15, Yashpal Sharma went down the reminiscence lane of enjoying the anti-hero within the blockbuster movie.
“Lagaan’s casting had already been done. It was only in the end that I got a call from Aamir Khan Productions. I thought someone was playing a prank. But I got to know Ashutosh Gowariker wanted to see me. I met him at Aamir’s office and in four hours, he narrated the entire story to me while walking around the room. I’ll never forget that because you won’t find a director who’s injected the story so deeply inside him, that he didn’t even look at the script,” Sharma stated whereas recalling how he was amazed at Gowariker’s readability concerning the story.
Lakha, a woodcutter, was one of many principal males of the village, who had his eyes on Gauri (Gracy Singh) and did the whole lot to impress her. And since Gauri was in love with Bhuvan (Aamir Khan), Lakha wished to disrupt Bhuvan’s cricket sport towards the British, till he has a change of coronary heart and finally ends up siding with the folks of Champaner.

Yashpal Sharma added that he thought Lakha was the one function that had some dimensions, however wasn’t certain if it was accessible. “Ashutosh told me he wants me to audition for Lakha only. I couldn’t believe it as I was still a struggler then. I had just done a few films like Shool, Arjun Pandit, Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa and Samar. I auditioned for it and left the office. Within five minutes I received a text that I was selected.”
According to Sharma, Gowariker was totally impressed and had despatched his audition clip to Aamir, who was with music director AR Rahman in Chennai at the moment. But the troublesome half for Sharma was his remuneration.

Yashpal Sharma’s Lakha sported gray shades in Lagaan. (Photo: Screenshot/Netflix)
Sharing the attention-grabbing story, Sharma revealed that submit his choice, Gowariker requested him to satisfy Aamir Khan’s then spouse Reena Dutta, who was the producer of Lagaan. “I though I’ll demand Rs 1 lakh since it’s a big production. Then I thought what if they refuse and sign someone else. I came down to 80,000 rupees in my head. Ultimately I thought I’ll lock it at Rs 50,000. Also because I had no work, I knew I would’ve still done it in Rs 20,000 (laughs). Finally when I met Reena Dutta, she told me their budget was limited and they were paying Rs 1.5 lakh to every actor. I just blabbered that I wanted Rs 2 lakh at least, and she agreed. I was shocked and also happy that I got double than what I expected,” Sharma stated.

Yashpal Sharma sported the look that was designed for Lakha on paper. “Ashutosh just told me to grow my hair,” he added. Lakha was one of many batsmen within the group of Champaner.