EXCLUSIVE: Kiran Rao on maintaining great relationship with Aamir Khan even after divorce: “He has his life and I have mine but we are very much family”

Jio Studios and Aamir Khan Productions’ Laapataa Ladies, directed by Kiran Rao, is just a few days away from its theatrical release. The film narrates the tale of India’s heartland, and the subject is urban as well. The team has shot in the real locations of Sehore, located in Madhya Pradesh, and also added real-life villagers and locations as part of the film. In an exclusive conversation with Bollywood Hungama, Kiran Rao talked about directing a comedy-drama, working on the story and how Laapataa Ladies came about. She even touched upon the subject of working with Aamir, who is now her ex-husband.

When asked how they have managed to maintain a great rapport even after their divorce, Rao said, “It’s quite natural for us, in some ways, because we’ve worked together for more than almost two decades. So yeah, in 2004, we started going out, so 20 years. We’ve achieved a kind of working with them together and it’s something that we enjoy doing and respect each other. A great deal. So that’s there and people keep asking where do you draw the boundaries? And how do you separate personal and professional? We don’t. We just are, in some weird ways, there’s no conscious separation. And I suppose working together is easier because we tap into each other’s creative side very easily and what excites me I want to share with him and likewise with him. And we rely on each other for a lot of this sort of creative exchange. So that was something we didn’t want to give up on. We knew that.”

She added, “And of course, the personal we have a family. I mean, it just doesn’t make sense to sever that part of our lives. We were very happily separated. He has his life and I have mine but we are very much family and I don’t see why that should change obviously if you can, unless it’s some sort of problem.”

Presented by Jio Studios, Laapataa Ladies is directed by Kiran Rao and produced by Aamir Khan and Jyoti Deshpande. The film, which stars Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Shrivastav along with Ravi Kishan, is releasing on March 1, 2024, and has been made under the banner of Aamir Khan Productions and Kindling Productions, with the script based on an award-winning story by Biplab Goswami. The screenplay and dialogue are written by Sneha Desai, while the additional dialogues have been jotted down by Divyanidhi Sharma.

ALSO READ: EXCLUSIVE: Prior to Laapataa Ladies, Kiran Rao was also working on developing a story about Indian singer Gauhar Jaan: “I had written a whole bunch of things”