Sai Paranjpe rejected Taare Zameen Par'

Sai Paranjpe rejected Taare Zameen Par'

What made you get out of FTII?

I started feeling old there, so I thought it was time to stop. I joined FTII at the age of 19, and came back at the age of 31.

I built a studio in Mumbai, as I had started painting. I started doing solo sold-out shows.

But I did not want to join the mafia of art, as it depended on one art critic or art gallery owner to decide who the next big painter would be. I decided to take up cinema instead, as the audiences will decide the fate of a film.

Please continue.

In 1990s, I hosted a talk show called Bindaas Bol. After that, I did sessions with various schools. I came across Maharashtra Dyslexia Association and joined that during the summer. I realized that what the society thought wasn't fit was completely fit. This was later made into the Taare Zameen Par script. I took the script to the Children Film Society of India. The panel liked it but the chairperson Sai Paranjpe rejected it.

So I reworked on the script. In 2002, I decided to narrate the script to Akshaye Khanna, as Dil Chahta Hai had just come out and he had played a painter there.

So I met Aamir and asked him for Akshaye's number. But we could not get in touch with him. So Aamir told me that he wanted to hear the script. But I had to wait for two years for him to hear it.