Kiran Rao opens up on her divorce with Aamir Khan and how they continue to maintain professional ties, producing Laapataa Ladies together.
Kiran Rao and Aamir Khan ended their marriage three years ago. The two continue to co-parent their son Azaad and are also professionally connected. Aamir is, in fact, producing Kiran’s directorial comeback Laapataa Ladies. Ahead of the film’s release, Kiran speaks with DNA in a freewheeling chat about their professional and personal equation, protecting Azaad, and more.
Work on Laapataa Ladies began in 2018 when Aamir and Kiran were together. Their separation and divorce took place during the production of the film. Talking about how they managed to keep the personal and the professional separate, Kiran says, “We got this story in 2018. In 2020, we started writing it and then the Covid happened. The film was literally was written and prepped during the period when we were getting our divorce. For most people, it is a period of upheaval, a tumultuous period. But for Aamir and me, it was exceedingly smooth. The decision to end our marriage was something we were sure we wanted to do in a way where it would not end any other familial, emotional or professional bonds that we had. So honestly, it did not play as much of a part.”
In the middle of it all came the box office failure of Aamir’s Laal Singh Chaddha. Both of them were producers on the film and Kiran admits the film flopping affected all of them. “The tumultuous time came during Laal Singh Chaddha and its failure was an upheaval for us. This film got delayed as a result because we were focussing on finishing Laal Singh and putting it out. When it didn’t do well, it took its toll on all of us,” she recalls.
Aamir and Kiran are no longer married but continue to be more than cordial. The filmmaker explains, “For me, it’s been quite easy at some level to manage the separation of having both personal relationship that is no longer marriage as well as professional. We decided that we wanted to change the definition of our relationship and end the social contract. We worked at it in a smooth way because we were conscious that Azaad should not be, in any way, traumatised by this public breakup.”
Kiran says that going through their separation during the pandemic helped as it allowed them to stay in the same house while working things out. “We were lucky that it happened during Covid and we were living in the same house and our life didn’t change that much in a physical way. We spent much more time together as a result of Covid. It was quite smooth and I continue to value our ability to work together and professionally rely on each other,” she says.
Laapataa Ladies, Kiran and Aamir’s latest collaboration, is a slice-of-life film starring new actors Sparsh Srivastava, Pratibha Ranta, and Nitanshi Goel, along with Ravi Kishan. The film releases in theatres on March 1.
