With his affable public image and effortless career transition from a bankable leading man to an elder statesman of sorts, no other Bollywood star can be more accurately described as “India’s Tom Hanks” than Aamir Khan. And as fate would have it, Khan is stepping into Hanks’ shoes as the star of the Indian remake of Forrest Gump, Laal Singh Chaddha, which debuted in theaters on Thursday, in time for the extended Independence Day weekend.
Quintessentially about America, director Robert Zemeckis’ Oscar-winning original film doesn’t immediately lend itself to a recontextualization for a foreign audience; but with minor tweaks and major overhauls, Khan managed to retool the soaring drama for Indians accustomed to colorful, genre-fluid epics. He detailed the process in an interview with the BBC, revealing the alterations began with the framing device of the film. While Hanks’ Forrest recounts his life journey to strangers on a park bench, Laal, in the remake, tells his tale to fellow passengers on a train. In Khan’s own words:
“In India, it’s a little difficult to sit on a park bench and have a conversation, it’s rather noisy and crowded. So we couldn’t imagine setting it at a bus stop. In India, trains are the most used form of transport, and it’s very common for passengers to exchange stories on a long journey, so that’s how we set the piece.”
While the trailer teased scenes that would be familiar to anybody that had watched the original, there were several key differences. The first (and most obvious) was that Khan is playing a Sikh man who wears a turban at different stages of his life. Secondly, the famous box of chocolates had been replaced by “golgappas” — a savory snack of puffed balls filled with spiced water that is popular all across India. And thirdly, Laal’s journey coincided meaningfully with important moments in India’s history — from riots to wars, sports victories and political turmoil, all told through the lens of a Sikh man.
