Mela director Dharmesh Darshan said that Aamir Khan wasn’t completely committed to the film, and was more concerned with resurrecting his brother Faisal Khan’s career.

He claimed that Aamir also insisted that they shoot a ‘vulgar’ scene for the film.

Director Dharmesh Darshan revealed that Kajol refused to star opposite Aamir Khan in the film Mela, because she was concerned about his reputation for doing multiple takes.

Kajol, he said, was a more spontaneous performer, and would usually deliver in the first take itself. In an interview with Lehren Retro, Dharmesh looked back on directing Mela, which remains the most derided film of Aamir’s career.

Reflecting on why Kajol didn’t do the film, he said, “All my friends had worked with her, but I worked with Lolo (Karisma Kapoor). Kajol was supposed to be in Mela, but there was some discomfort from her side. She was not sure about Aamir at that point, though later on they did Fanaa.

She’s a one-take actor, and he takes (many) takes. So, she had those reservations, that her spontaneity… But she was very gracious, she came to my house and explained it to me. Kajol was not known to do these things.” The female lead role eventually went to Twinkle Khanna, who has often mocked the film publicly.

He said that Aamir was too focused on resurrecting his brother Faisal Khan’s career, and wasn’t as committed to the quality of the film as he would usually be. He said, “I didn’t want to do Mela, but Aamir had to correct Faisal’s career. First I said no to him.”

Dharmesh made similar statements about the film Haan Maine Bhi Pyaar Kiya, which he said he did for emotional reasons, and not because he actually wanted to. But at his mother’s insistence, Dharmesh agreed to direct Mela. He continued, “Oddly, Aamir didn’t submit so much in Mela.

His mind started working more, because he was concerned about Faisal. He had become so big after Raja Hindustani, and he doesn’t have that commercial instinct. It became a hodgepodge, but I saved it at the end of the day economically. But I got so much flak for it.”

Dharmesh said that when he first worked with Aamir, the actor hadn’t cracked the Hindi heartland as some of his contemporaries, and that he was seen as more ‘elitist’. But during Mela, he was pushing for scenes that went against his image.

Dharmesh said that Aamir encouraged him to shoot a ‘vulgar’ scene, which he’d seen in the Hollywood film Dumb and Dumber. He said, “You wouldn’t believe this, but there’s that urine therapy sequence (in the film) with Johnny Lever.

For the first time in my life, I wept on set… I said who will believe this is an Aamir Khan sequence. He told me, ‘Dharmesh, come on, you can’t be pretentious’.”

Dharmesh said that the scene was ‘vulgar’, but he did it with a heavy heart only because he’d committed to the job. While Aamir bounced back from the film’s failure the very next year, with the back-to-back hits Lagaan and Dil Chahta Hai, Mela effectively ended Faisal’s Bollywood dreams.