Aamir Khan, known as the Mr Perfectionist of Bollywood, often draws inspiration from his own life experiences to make his scenes look real and believable. One such instance occurred on the sets of 3 Idiots when Aamir asked Mona Singh to slap him during the scene when her character delivers her baby. Speaking about it to News18, Mona said, “Pehle toh discussion yeh ho raha tha ki karna kya hai (They were first discussing how to shoot it). Am I supposed to like bite him, kick him, slap him or just say get out? Then everybody was narrating their experience – my wife did this and that. Then we arrived at the conclusion that I will slap Aamir.” Sharing how Aamir asked her to slap him hard, she said, “And knowing Aamir Sir, more than method [acting], he wants perfection, he wants it to look real. (He said) ‘We will only shoot one take and you have to slap me really hard’. I was like okay and I am a Sardarni, I was in full energy (laughs) and his bodyguard was standing behind and looking at the scene. After the scene, I asked him ‘was it okay?’ he then nodded (shows thumbs up).” In his recent appearance on The Great Indian Kapil Show, Aamir had narrated how he was slapped in real life by his ex-wife Reena Dutta when she was giving birth to their eldest son Junaid Khan. He said, “As a good husband, I had practiced those breathing exercises. As the labor got too intense, I tried to calm her down. But I got slapped and she told me ‘Stop this nonsense.’ She was in extreme pain, she even bit my hand.” Despite getting slapped by Reena, Aamir couldn’t help but take a mental note of her expressions during the tough time. “I looked at Reena’s face and when she experienced that labor pain, her facial expression was ‘surprise and disbelief’. She couldn’t fathom the intensity of the pain. As an actor I was like, ‘For extreme pain, surprise and disbelief are the expressions.” While this was a discovery for Aamir, Reena was not pleased with his observation. He said, “She was furious. She was like, ‘I was in pain and you were seeing my expressions’.” Directed by Rajkumar Hirani, 3 Idiots opened to critical and commercial success in 2009. The movie was particularly successful in China, and eventually grossed over Rs 450 crore worldwide. Apart from Aamir, it starred R Madhavan and Sharman Joshi in lead roles.
