Actors often open up about how box-office flops have impacted their careers. However, Bollywood actor Amin Hajee had an entirely different experience. The much-loved film Lagaan, in which he played the small but significant role of Bagha, ended up making things rather challenging for him. Hajee has once again said that the Aamir Khan-starrer “destroyed” him and revealed why. The actor also opened up about struggling to find roles that could match the critically acclaimed film, which went on to become a landmark in his career.
Aamir Khan’s Lagaan ‘Destroyed’ Amin Hajee Aka Bagha
In an interview with Siddharth Kannan, actor and writer Amin Hajee revealed that his wife, Charlotte Whitby-Coles, was upset with him because he stopped signing films after Lagaan. The reason? Most of the roles offered to him were either “mute characters” or other insignificant parts. According to Hajee, the scripts simply failed to entice him.
His wife revealed, “After Lagaan, whenever a role came, he would say, ‘This role is rubbish,’ or ‘That’s no good,’ and so on. So I told him, ‘What are we going to do? You have to work. You have to take up some work.’”
Hajee added, “To be honest, Lagaan was a unique script. It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I was fortunate enough to get Lagaan, but whatever offers or narrations I received after that were zero compared to it. So I was destroyed after Lagaan, because I simply couldn’t work after that. Actually, you can say that they gave me a Taj Mahal like Lagaan; they gave me an opportunity like Swades to write. They gave me a friend like Aamir Khan. What could I have done after that?”
Amin Hajee On Financial Struggles
Amin also opened up about the financial struggles that came with his unpredictable career and admitted that supporting a household while maintaining the lifestyle expected in a big city felt overwhelming. Despite earning well during his work with Vikram Bhatt, he later chose to pursue his own story, Koi Jaane Na. He spent eight years developing it and the decision brought further financial uncertainty. This left him questioning whether leaving his stable work had been a mistake.
Through those difficult years, his wife Charlotte remained his strongest support. She reassured him that he did not have to shoulder the responsibility of providing alone. She encouraged him to pursue his filmmaking dream and assured him that she would contribute financially whenever needed.
For those unversed, Charlotte and Amin met on the sets of Lagaan and fell in love.