Aamir Khan demanded ₹8 crore if Rang De Basanti were to get delayed, recalls Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra credits Aamir Khan for the timely completion of Rang De Basanti. The filmmaker has revealed that the actor had included a clause, under which, he would double his remuneration if the film wouldn't be completed on time.

The revelation was made in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's upcoming autobiography, The Stranger In The Mirror. The book has been co-written by marketer-author Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta. In the book, the filmmaker praises Aamir Khan and called him a 'visionary.'

"Aamir is a visionary and understands everything that is going wrong or right with the creative process. Sometimes, tough decisions like ‘let’s shoot for 10 more days’ became easy because Aamir backed the need to do it. Also, he had no ego about whose scene it was. If the scene belonged to the other boys, he would happily stay in the background because the film’s narrative was the Bible that could not be tampered with. Aamir’s cinematic understanding remains unparalleled in our industry. Without his nod, RDB would have been another dreamer’s script gathering the dust of apathy and inertia," he wrote, as reported by The Quint.

"While signing on the dotted line, Aamir included a clause, which was the reason I ended up making the movie on time in the first place. Here’s an example: ‘If my fee is 4 crore and you don’t pay me on time, then you’ll have to pay me 8 crore for defaulting,’ he had said. I had never even seen 8 crores till then," he added.

Also read: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra reveals Daniel Craig auditioned for Rang De Basanti, but James Bond came calling

In his book, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra also confessed that AR Rahman wasn't his first choice for the film's music. He had almost finalised musician Peter Gabriel, one of the founding members of the British rock band Genesis, for the music. However, his gut feeling told him that he should work with Rahman.