Renowned Telugu director S S Rajamouli has expressed his desire to make a Bollywood film with superstar Aamir Khan.
"I love all actors from here. But I love Aamir Khan the most. I adore him and treat him as a guru. I like the way he makes films, the way he promotes them. If there is a chance, I would jump to direct him because I would learn so much from him," Rajamouli told PTI, adding that from 'Sarfarosh', he loved all of Aamir's films.
The director's 2006 film 'Vikramarkudu' was remade in Hindi as 'Rowdy Rathore'. The film, starring Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha in the lead, was a huge hit.
His comedy thriller 'Maryada Ramanna' has been remade as 'Son of Sardaar' in Hindi. The film, released this Diwali with Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Dutt, Sonakshi Sinha and Juhi Chawla in the lead, is doing well at the box office.
"I would love to do a Bollywood film. I would like to make a historical or a mythological movie. But again when time will come I don't know what I will do," Rajamouli said.
"Our mythology and history have strong and powerful content. Like the story between Rana Pratap and Akbar, Shivaji and Aurangzeb. It takes a lot of effort to bring that on screen. But I would love to take that challenge," he added.
So, will Aamir be the best and immediate option for his Bollywood debut, Rajamouli says, "That depends on the story, even though I would love to work with him. I cannot make a story that would not suit him and go ask him."
On when he sees his Hindi film debut happening, the director said, "I don't know. I am still in the planning stages. I am planning it to happen in next two years time."
Known for making 'masala' films down south, Rajamouli, however, does not want to try out that for Bollywood debut.
"I don't see myself making one ('masala' movie in Bollywood). I don't want to go back to mass 'masala' films. I have been doing that from the beginning of my career.
I see potential in them. It is just that I moved to universally appealing subjects, I love making films with large canvas like 'Magadheera' (historical romance drama)," he said.
Rajamouli's dream is to make epic Mahabharat's presentation on big screen.
"For 'Mahabharata', I need a lot more experience. May be it would take eight or nine years to start the project," he said.
Though Rajamouli's films have been remade in Hindi and have been quite successful at the box office, the director is not keen on remaking his own movies in Hindi.
"I don't like remakes. I spend one to two-and-half years to make a movie. By the time it is done I am exhausted with the story. I do everything for it. So again spending two years or so on same story is not an exciting option," he said.
"I want to make a Hindi movie as I want to grow bigger, tell the story to a larger audience. I wouldn't do that by remaking a movie I would rather go with a new story," he added.
Most of Rajamouli's films have been dubbed in Hindi like his Telugu flick 'Student No. 1' as 'Aaj Ka Mujrim', 'Chatrapathi' as 'Hukumat Ki Jung' and 'Eega' as 'Makkhi'.
"In the beginning of my career I was making a lot of action movies. There is a business section in north where they buy action movies from south, dub it and release it in some parts of Rajasthan, UP and Bihar.
So that's how my films were dubbed in Hindi. I am a director, it is the producer who sells a movie, I don't have any control on this," Rajamouli said.
"Later on I moved to universal film themes and that is when Hindi producers saw potential and started buying the stories rather than dubbing them. They started remaking my films in Hindi like 'Rowdy Rathore', 'Son of Sardaar' and now they are planning to do 'Magadheera'," he said.
The rights of historical romantic drama 'Magadheera' have been bought by Vikas Bahl and Anurag Kashyap's company.
"I don't know what is happening with this project here. The last thing I heard was Anurag Kashyap and his crew had taken it. He is one of the directors whose work I love. Then there was a period of lull and there was no announcement. I wish them all the luck," he said.
There have been rumours that Ranveer Singh will be part of the film. Prior to that even actor Ranbir Kapoor's name had cropped up for the same project.
'Magadheera' was a huge hit in south and the man who originally penned the script wants Hrithik Roshan in the lead.
"People were asking me who would be the best option to play the role. I told any actor would suit. But you need to make small adjustments to make it suit that actor. If you shoot the movie as it is, then I feel Hrithik Roshan is the best option," Rajamouli said
