Of all the recognition Lagaan won, the Oscar nomination — the third film from India to do so after Mother India (1957) and Salaam Bombay! (1988) — remains the most memorable. Though it didn’t win the award, director Ashutosh Gowariker admits there was “renewed interest in song and dance”. He tells us, “When making Lagaan, I wanted it to cross over in India to all states. The day we got to know it’s being liked in single screen theatres in Delhi and Mumbai...we started getting news from France, South Africa, we knew the film is crossing over on its own; that was a bigger joy.”

Talking about the Oscar nomination, he notes, "... the film was speaking. So, yes, mainstream Indian cinema came on a global platform, in the new era.”

If Gowariker, 57, was making Lagaan today, would he have compromised on its 3.42-hour run time? He says, “My approach in scripting would have be different, but it’s not a two-hour film. I feel a film should be told in a required duration and with the genre it’s promising.”

While actor Aamir Khan felt he didn’t prepare much for his character, Gowariker says he was somewhere sure that Khan would just do it right. “Each time we did narrations, I knew Aamir is getting the character; he knows it. Also, he had done auditions with many actors, so he was taking that all in. The only thing I’ve been sad about is that he couldn’t work on his [Avadhi] diction,” the filmmaker admits.