{"id":879472,"date":"2026-06-20T01:26:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T01:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/879472\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T01:26:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T01:26:19","slug":"paul-blackthorne-i-was-happy-to-point-a-finger-at-the-british-raj-recalls-aamir-khans-commitment-on-lagaan-hindi-movie-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/879472\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Blackthorne: ‘I was happy to point a finger at the British Raj’; recalls Aamir Khan’s commitment on Lagaan | Hindi Movie News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PaulPaul Blackthorne: ‘I was happy to point a finger at the British Raj’; recalls Aamir Khan’s commitment on Lagaan (Image credits: Instagram) Twenty-five years after Lagaan became one of Indian cinema\u2019s most celebrated films, British actor Paul Blackthorne<\/a> is still surprised by the impact his character, Captain Andrew Russell, continues to have on audiences. During a recent visit to Mumbai, the actor opened up about revisiting the film, his friendship with Aamir Khan<\/a>, and why saying yes to Lagaan remains one of the best decisions of his life.<\/p>\n

\u2018People still recognize me as Captain Russell\u2019<\/p>\n

Blackthorne admitted that the passage of time sometimes makes it difficult for him to recognize his younger self on screen.\u201cI look in the mirror now and you have that feeling. You go, \u2018Who is this guy? When did this happen?\u2019 And then watching the film the other night, I\u2019m looking at the screen going, \u2018Who the hell is that guy? I don\u2019t recognize that guy,\u2019\u201d he told Just Too Filmy.While he often manages to move around unnoticed, recognition eventually catches up with him.\u201cIf I sit somewhere… people are trying to work it out and then they go, \u2018Captain Russell.\u2019 And you go, \u2018Oh, hi. How are you?\u2019 It\u2019s quite funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Lagaan was one of those \u201csay yes to life\u201d moments\u2019<\/p>\n

Looking back at how he landed the role, Blackthorne said he never imagined the film would become a global phenomenon.\u201cYou read a script and either have a response or you don\u2019t. I had a response. I thought, \u2018My God, this is epic. This is incredible. This is completely different to anything I\u2019ve experienced before.\u2019\u201dCalling it a defining moment in his career, he added, \u201cI think it was one of those \u2018say yes to life\u2019 moments. So many people don\u2019t take that moment and then they regret it. I recognised that this could be an amazing experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

On playing a British officer during colonial India<\/p>\n

The actor said he had no hesitation portraying a representative of the British Raj, despite being aware of the painful history associated with colonialism.\u201cBeing aware of the tyranny of what that was all about \u2014 the British Raj and colonialism \u2014 I was very happy to point a finger at it and show it,\u201d he said.Blackthorne praised the way Lagaan handled the subject matter. \u201cIt was shown, not told. It demonstrated the context of that time without becoming preachy. I had the opportunity to have a lot of fun being the dastardly representation of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I was nominated for a negative role and didn\u2019t understand it\u2019<\/p>\n

The actor laughed while recalling his nomination for Best Actor in a Negative Role.\u201cI was being told, \u2018This is the Indian Oscars and you\u2019ve been nominated as Best Actor in a Negative Role.\u2019 I thought, \u2018That doesn\u2019t sound very good. What is it?\u2019\u201dHe joked that he was disappointed not to win. \u201cI didn\u2019t get it. I was very upset. I was like, \u2018How negative have I got to be to get this award?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Watching Lagaan after nearly two decades<\/p>\n

Blackthorne recently watched the film again after almost 20 years and found himself experiencing it from a completely different perspective.\u201cIt was the most objective viewing I would have ever experienced because of such distance from the last time I saw it and not really recognising the guy that\u2019s on the screen,\u201d he said.One sequence, in particular, continues to move him deeply. \u201cThe Kachra scene… it makes me go every time. The power of that scene just goes through every pore of my body. It\u2019s incredible.\u201dHe was also struck by the film\u2019s humour and the tension created during the cricket match. \u201cThe intensity as the cricket match is building up, the camera angles, the tension \u2014 it\u2019s brilliant directing, brilliant cinematography, brilliant execution of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning Hindi for Captain Russell<\/p>\n

Playing Russell required months of preparation, especially because Blackthorne had to perform in Hindi.\u201cAamir set me up with a great tutor in London and I spent about four months going over these lines,\u201d he revealed.The actor explained that acting itself is challenging enough, but doing it in another language added an extra layer of complexity. \u201cIt was a double leap of faith that hopefully the Hindi words would come out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hilarious story behind \u2018Lagaan pasta\u2019<\/p>\n

One of Blackthorne\u2019s favourite memories from the shoot involves what the cast later nicknamed \u201cLagaan pasta\u201d.After the British actors casually mentioned they had been eating a lot of Indian food and wouldn\u2019t mind some variety, the production arranged a pasta meal.\u201cWe walked in and somebody shouted, \u2018It\u2019s pasta! It\u2019s pasta!\u2019 Everyone was scooping it up. Then we realised it was curry pasta,\u201d he laughed.The experiment was mostly successful, though not without consequences. \u201cOne time I had the most unfortunate experience of it cooking inside me and expanding and expanding. I genuinely felt like I was going to explode.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Aamir Khan led by example\u2019<\/p>\n

Blackthorne credited Aamir Khan\u2019s work ethic and commitment for inspiring everyone on set.\u201cIf this was Hollywood, the star would be tucked away in an air-conditioned trailer somewhere. Aamir was under an umbrella like the rest of us, drinking chai like the rest of us.\u201dThe actor recalled seeing Khan actively engage with thousands of extras during large-scale scenes. \u201cWhen you\u2019re seeing that kind of spirit, you just shut up and get on with your stuff. It doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019ve got a blister on your foot.\u201d<\/p>\n

A friendship that has lasted 25 years<\/p>\n

What began as a professional collaboration eventually turned into a lasting friendship.\u201cAamir has been incredibly generous toward me over these 25 years,\u201d Blackthorne said. \u201cEven this weekend, inviting me out to come here is outrageous. I\u2019m so grateful for it.\u201dReflecting on the unexpected journey that Lagaan set in motion, the actor admitted he never imagined he would still be talking about the film in Mumbai a quarter of a century later.\u201cIf someone at the end of 1999 had said I\u2019d be sitting in Mumbai experiencing this 25 years later, I\u2019d be pinching myself too. I feel very fortunate. It\u2019s been an unbelievable experience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Blackthorne: ‘I was happy to point a finger at the British Raj’; recalls Aamir Khan’s commitment on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":879473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[339989,2893,204022,357342,357345,171,67593,353027,53,357344,357346,357343,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-879472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-aamir","tag-aamir-khan","tag-andrew-russell","tag-blackthorne","tag-captain-russell","tag-entertainment","tag-khan","tag-lagaan","tag-movies","tag-paul-blackthorne","tag-paul-blackthorne-lagaan","tag-russellplaying-russell","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116779836333059116","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}