Films are for entertainment not for education: Aamir

Chennai, Aug 12 (UNI) Bollywood star-director Aamir Khan is not against ''larger than life'' cinema and is a huge fan of Tamil superstar Rajnikanth.

Aamir, who made waves with his directorial debut 'Taare Zameen Par', which was about dyslexic children, which brought him critical acclaim, said at a press conference here last night ''Cinema is meant to entertain basically, not to educate. For education, you go to college.'' Answering a range of questions on his opinion about the larger than life cinema, he said his own objective was to make films basically to entertain.

'' I am a fan of Rajnikanth in this context'', he said referring to the larger than life characters portrayed by the Tamil actor, who is a rage with the youths.

Aamir said the primary role of cinema is to entertain just as the role of the police is to maintain law and order. If it has a message or something to educate the audience, that role is only secondary, he added.

Asked if he thought that his own star value helped his 'Taare Zameen Par' to woo audiences to the theatres, Aamir denying that this was not so, said the presence of a popular star may be of help to bring the audiences in instantly.

''But a film will click only if the audiences like the story or a theme. For instance, it was not cricket that brought in the audiences to see ''Lagaan''. The story of the film would have been liked even if it was football instead of cricket'', he observed.

Aamir said good cinema could be made at any time not consciously vis a vis our larger than life films. A good film will always connect with audience.

In this context, Aamir did not agree with a question that by way of themes Hindi cinema was at a dead end. ''It is not so especially now. Films like Taare Zameen par or Munnabhai are being box office hits too'', he averred.

However, Aamir agreed with a suggestion that Hindi cinema was urban centric.'' This may be because of the multiplexes, which bring in large audiences. Yes, there has been an urban-rural divide in Hindi cinema'', he added.

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