Aamir Khan’s son Junaid Khan has had two releases so far, but he is still waiting for his big Bollywood break, and Aamir is pinning all his hopes on his production Ek Din, which also marks the Hindi film debut of Sai Pallavi. But, Ek Din is another remake from Aamir’s production house after Laal Singh Chaddha, Sitaare Zameen Par, and many other remakes that Aamir has done in the past.Even after the failure of Laal Singh Chaddha, Aamir has gone on to produce two more remakes — RS Prasanna’s coming-of-age sports dramedy Sitaare Zameen Par (remake of Javier Fesser’s 2018 Spanish film Champeones) and the upcoming Ek Din (remake of Banjong Pisanthanakun 2016 Thai film One Day). But Aamir isn’t concerned about making another one with his son.“You must understand Ghajini was also a remake. So, I have nothing against remakes. I’d do it again,” argued Aamir, referring to AR Murugadoss’ 2008 Hindi blockbuster, a remake of the director’s 2005 Tamil film, which turned out to be the first member of the Rs 100 crore club.“I personally feel when you come across material that really excites you and moves you, and it’s from another part of the world or another language, I’d like our audience to also experience the same feeling in a language we understand. That essentially is a remake. So, I haven’t had any problem doing remakes in the last 38 years, and I don’t think I’ll have any going ahead as well,” added Aamir.“As creative people, when you get excited by a work you’ve seen, you want to give it your own energy. I don’t subscribe to this view that once something is made, you can’t touch it. Whether it succeeds or fails is different,” Aamir argued further, citing the example of countless William Shakespeare plays which continue to be adapted across the world even today. Sai Pallavi and Junaid Khan in Ek Din.Mansoor defends Akele Hum Akele TumOf all the films Aamir and Mansoor have collaborated on before Ek Din, the only unsuccessful film has been the 1995 family drama, Akele Hum Akele Tum, which was an unofficial adaptation of Robert Benton’s 1979 Hollywood classic Kramer Vs Kramer. “I never said Akele Hum Akele Tum isn’t a remake. But it’s more than a remake,” argued Mansoor.The original Hollywood film revolves around Meryl Streep’s character Joanna Kramer walking out of her marriage with Dustin Hoffman’s Ted Kramer and abandoning her son. “Kramer Vs Kramer is made for a Western audience, so it’s very different. But for an Indian audience, if you leave it at that, a woman leaves her husband and child, it’s kind of incomplete. Kramer Vs Kramer is a brilliant film. But if I make it literally, I’m not doing justice to my audience. I’m being lazy. If I don’t have any ideas about it, then don’t make it,” added Mansoor.Story continues below this adHe pointed out that Akele Hum Akele Tum is, in fact, an amalgamation of two premises — Kramer Vs Kramer and Frank Pierson’s 1976 cult musical romance A Star Is Born. Mansoor admitted he hasn’t even watched the latter yet, but has no qualms in admitting he lifted its premise and merged it with that of Kramver Vs Kramer. “I don’t want to justify myself. I love the film, and I won’t hide. There are literal scenes, verbatim,” admitted Mansoor.Also Read — ‘Help me find decent work’: Rahul Roy hits back at trolls, opens up about financial strugglesEven though Akele Hum Akele Tum was an unofficial adaptation, Aamir now maintains that he likes to buy the remake rights officially. Several of his past films were unofficial remakes of popular Hollywood movies – Mahesh Bhatt’s Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin (1991) of It Happened One Night (1934); Mansoor’s Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992) of Breaking Away (1979); Vikram Bhatt’s Ghulam (1998) of On The Waterfront (1954); and Indra Kumar’s Mann (1999) of An Affair To Remember (1957). “At that time, we didn’t even know how to buy the rights,” claimed Aamir.‘Ek Din would’ve been a nice debut for Junaid Khan’“I don’t know whether I’d heard the script before Maharaj (2024). I do remember feeling this would’ve been a nice first film for him,” said Aamir. Junaid made his film debut with Siddharth P Malhotra’s Netflix India period drama Maharaj, backed by Aditya Chopra’s Yash Raj Films. Earlier, Aamir had claimed that there was no nepotism involved despite his equation with YRF since he didn’t even know Junaid had auditioned for the film.Story continues below this ad“The character in Ek Din is a very diffident, shy, and unsure of himself. I thought that suited Junaid. The word in the film is punctilious. Junaid is actually quite punctilious. He loves getting into details. It’s things we don’t even know. When you ask him, ‘Why do you know this?’, he just says, ‘I read it somewhere.’ So, his character has a lot of general knowledge. It’s not even general knowledge, it’s very specific knowledge. So, on the whole, I felt he’s bring it out well. And he has, he’s done a great job,” Aamir told The Hollywood Reporter India.Aamir’s cousin, Mansoor Khan, who’s also co-producing the film with him, echoed the opinion. Mansoor is known for directing films like Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, Akele Hum Akele Tum, among others. Both claimed that Junaid managed to hold his own in front of co-star Sai Pallavi, who despite making her Bollywood debut with Ek Din, has far more experience since she’s been working in South films since 2016. Aamir even recently hailed her as “the best actor in the country”. Junaid Khan auditioned for father Aamir Khan’s role in Laal Singh Chaddha.Junaid isn’t playing a ‘hero’Aamir also pointed out that unlike his breakthrough role of Raj in Mansoor’s 1988 directorial debut and cult romantic drama Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Junaid’s role in Ek Din isn’t very “heroic”. “He’s not a guy who bashes up 20 people. He isn’t very confident or suave. He doesn’t have quick answers. He’s a guy who doesn’t believe in himself. There’s a line in the film, ‘Mera ek superpower hai — jo bhi mujhe dekhta hai, jhatt se bhool jata hai.’ Nobody even registers him. So, I don’t think it’d be the ideal first film, but it’d be a good film to start with,” added Aamir.Interestingly, Junaid’s debut film could have been Advait Chandan’s 2022 film Laal Singh Chaddha, the official Hindi remake of Robert Zemeckis’ 1994 cult Hollywood film Forrest Gump. He auditioned for the titular role, and his performance was lapped up by both Aamir and Mansoor, but owing to the studio’s reservations, Aamir had to stick to playing the lead character. The film subsequently flopped at the box office.Story continues below this adAfter Ek Din, Aamir is looking forward to Rajkumar Santoshi’s Lahore 1947 starring Sunny Deol. The film is being produced by him.