Kiran Rao recalls ‘nightmare experience’ as AD for Aamir Khan’s Lagaan; ‘I’d be arranging toasts at 4.30 am’

Kiran Rao recently recalled her time working on Aamir Khan’s acclaimed film Lagaan, where she served as one of the assistant directors.

Reflecting on her experience, she disclosed her responsibility of overseeing the actors’ hair and make-up preparations on set. Kiran revealed the challenge of ensuring they were in their vanity vans by 4:30, describing it as a ‘nightmare experience.’ Her candid revelations offer a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes dynamics of the production.

Kiran Rao used to wake up at 4 am

In a recent interview with Lallantop Kiran Rao revealed, “My job was to somehow get all the actors from makeup, hair, wardrobe to set. And in Lagaan, we had two cricket teams, plus everybody had beards, the women wore dresses. It was a nightmare. Before reaching set at 4-4:30 am, I’d be on my walkie telling them to put the toaster on. The actor who played Elizabeth (Rachel Shelley) wanted toast first thing in the morning”.

She further added, “I would be sitting in the makeup room and wondering what I was doing with my Masters in Mass Communication from Jamia. But finally, everybody has to put in their hours in all these places. But you hope that one day you leave the makeup room and find a spot near the monitor. Unfortunately, I didn’t even get to see much of the shoot, I spent most of my time in the makeup room.”

Kiran Rao reminisced about the initial cut being four hours long, even excluding the cricket scenes. She said, “We didn’t know how they’d cut it down. We thought that this would easily be a six-hour film,” she recalled. Despite this, Lagaan was released with a runtime of 3 hours and 44 minutes, becoming a hit and earning a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards.