Actor-writer Amin Hajee, who played Bagha in Lagaan, has opened up about the after-effects of being part of the landmark film. In a recent conversation, Hajee said the experience set a benchmark that the roles coming his way simply could not match.
Speaking to Siddharth Kanan, Hajee recalled that his wife, Charlotte Whitby-Coles, would often become frustrated with him for turning down work.
“She was angry with me because I wasn’t signing any more work after Lagaan,” he said. According to Amin Hajee, most of the offers were for “a mute character or some other insignificant roles”, and the scripts being narrated to him did not measure up.
Charlotte, who met Hajee during the making of Lagaan, remembered the situation similarly.
She said, “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 has often said that Lagaan “destroyed” him, and during the conversation, he explained why.
“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 also spoke about the financial pressure that accompanied his uncertain career.
“Everything here costs money,” he said, describing the expectations that come with living in a big city — from clothes and grooming to maintaining a household and a certain lifestyle.
He recalled his brother questioning why he was dressed a certain way or why he had not groomed himself properly. At times, Hajee said, he did not even have enough money to buy good shirts and trousers.
“I didn’t have money to buy a good shirt and pants. Upkeep in big cities is too much. You won’t have enough money for household expenses, but you still want a big car. That’s the kind of lifestyle you see in cities.”
Charlotte said the couple’s relatively simple lifestyle helped them navigate those difficult years.
“We are also quite simple in the way we think. I’m not someone who loves diamonds or jewellery, and he is not someone who likes Gucci or anything like that.”
After co-writing Swades, Amin Hajee worked with Vikram Bhatt on several projects, including Haunted 3D and 1920: The Evil Returns. That association also brought financial stability for a period. But Hajee eventually chose to step away and concentrate on a story of his own.
“When I was writing with Vikram Bhatt, I was earning well. I did quite a lot of work with him. I am a husband, and my culture tells me that I have to earn. There is a lot of pressure on men, actually. I am a failure as a man because I never really had money. I was never able to earn consistently. I have seen some very difficult days.”
That pressure became more when Hajee decided to make his own film. He spent eight years developing Koi Jaane Na, eventually making his directorial debut with the 2021 psychological thriller starring Kunal Kapoor and Amyra Dastur.
“I had written my own story, Koi Jaane Na. I spent eight years making it. One day, I told her, ‘I made a mistake by leaving Vikram’s work. We don’t even have money right now.’”
“Don’t worry about how much we have or don’t have. We are managing with whatever we have. You work. You have to fulfil your dream, so focus on that.”
Charlotte also challenged Hajee’s assumption that the responsibility of earning rested entirely on him.
The couple live in Panchgani, Maharashtra, with their two daughters.
