“He’s a pretentious prick. He’s frightening, and he is moralistic. He’s hypocritical. He’s self righteous. He is holier than thou”.
As I write this, open letters are flooding the internet faster than the speed of sound, and my guess is that all of the new ones will pretty much say the same thing. If we’re done calling him names, and if we’re done sighing with disappointment, then there’s something that I’d like to say.
1) He didn’t even watch the video. How do you know that?
To begin with, let’s stop saying, “He hasn’t even watched the video, and he is only reacting to what he has heard”, No shit, Sherlock! That is what he told the media!
He heard about it, not from Vidyut or Pooja Bhatt or Russel Peters, he heard about it from Karan Johar and Arjun Kapoor – who were a part of the roast. He heard jokes that you haven’t heard, because those jokes didn’t even make it to the YouTube telecast.
So, in some ways, he reacted to a more complete version of the roast, as compared to those of you who chose not to spend 4000 bucks and watch it live. I did.
2) I am quoting him, “I’m all for free speech. No issues”. In fact, his films have been banned; his effigies have been burnt, because he chose to exercise his freedom of speech. And, if you think about it, this is exactly what the open-letter writers are doing. Isn’t this their version of effigy burning? Because, he exercised the very freedom of speech that is being defended by the open-letter writers.
Did he say that AIB should be banned? Did he say that the AIB cast should be jailed? What the fuck did he say? He said that he didn’t like it. That he didn’t think it was funny, and he wasn’t impressed by it.
In fact, what’s bothering me is how people like Russel Peters (who I usually think is hilarious) are asking him to shut up! How can we talk about freedom of speech when we are asking someone to shut up in the same breath! I mean, WTF!
He also said that actors are not artists. Don’t even get me started on that.
What if Aamir had come out in support of the AIB roast, and said that he absolutely loved the roast, then you’d all have been celebrating him, right?
So, what you want is not freedom of speech, you just want everyone to agree with you.
Your attitude is: “We roast. We are funny. You disagree. You are not cool.” Isn’t that attitude the same as that of the Right Wing?
3) BOSEDKBOSEDKBOSEDK. That’s the catch now, isn’t it? He produced a really funny film that was full of expletives, and now he says that he isn’t impressed by bad language? How dare he!
I know twitter is a medium of 140 characters, and it’s tough to understand anything that can’t be expressed in just that much space, so I’m going to try explaining it in 140 characters.
“Delhi Belly is a fictional film. Arpita, Farida Jalal, Reema Lagoo, Simi Garewal – are real people. The roast was not fiction. (I would have liked to add the word ‘Dumbass’ in there, but I ran out of characters.)”
If you have watched the roast on YouTube, you probably missed out on the super crass jokes about Salman Khan’s sister Arpita, who by the way, had not signed up for the roast. No prizes for guessing why they edited those jokes out.
Are we really so childish that we think that if someone produced a film that has abusive language, he has to enjoy every show, film, or work of art that has bad language in it?
By that logic, does Rohit Shetty have to jump with joy every time a car gets blown up, even if that happens in real life?
Does everything have to be simplified to such a stupid level?
4) What really gets my goat is how most people, who just can’t seem to have an opinion of their own, are sharing these rather smartly written open letters accompanied by their comments, such as, “My Point Exactly”/“Have Lost Respect for Aamir”. I mean, give him a break.
The man goes out and actually talks about LGBTQI rights, risking his conservative fan base. Famous people, some even from the LGBTQI community haven’t done that – it doesn’t count, if you’re joking about it. If you have the balls, take a stand on the issue.
The man takes on powerful god-men in a genuine satire. He makes a film about dyslexia that actually makes a huge difference to the way we look at parenting.
He actually apologises on National Television for having been a part of regressive films. He takes on the media and the politicians in the film Peepli Live. In almost every episode of Satyamva Jayate, he targets powerful lobbies.
And then, he voices his personal opinion on a fucking ‘roast’, and we lose respect for him, and we can’t stop writing open letters about how we’re disappointed in him?
What does this say about us?
PS: I enjoyed parts of the roast myself, especially the joke about Arjun Kapoor creeping Shakti Kapoor out. I fell off my chair laughing. My favourite film as a child was Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (QSQT), and I wish I hadn’t watched Gajini, or if wishes could be granted, then I wish that Aamir hadn’t acted in it.
Also read: “Why Is Aamir Khan Such a Pretentious Prick?”
This post has also appeared in BuzzFeed’s community section.