The year was 2003. And alien films were, well, an alien concept to the Indian film industry. Koi... Mil Gaya changed that forever. The film, directed by Rakesh Roshan, was not only a success, but also cemented Hrithik Roshan’s acting chops with his portrayal of a specially-abled character. Talking to us on the film’s 20th anniversary today, the actor gets nostalgic.

“I had a deeper connection with my inner child while shooting the film. That’s something that I miss. Then I miss Jaadoo — there is an emotional connection that I have with him. It wasn’t a conscious decision to enhance my career — it was a decision taken solely from my heart... [With this film], I became more clear on the kind of films I wanted to be a part of in the future,” he tells us.

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Rohit Mehra was an extension of my real self. It is from a lesser-known time of my life, my school days. I used to stutter since childhood, and just like in the film, not all people would be sensitive to my speech limitations and that would lead to bullying. In fact, the scene where the bullies break Rohit’s scooty, had happened to me in real life where some older boys broke my cycle, which was my most treasured possession as a child. I was heartbroken and it made me angry. The honesty and reality of the situation are what were seen onscreen.

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For It’s Magic, I just set myself free and danced as if no one was watching! Rohit’s moves had to be similar to his body language — he would walk a little differently, move in a certain way, tilt his head at an angle, express a lot through his eyes and have an ‘I can do it all’ attitude. I had to imbibe all these peculiarities of Rohit for his dance, too. Credit to Ganesh Hegde, who understood the finer details and choreographed the song after observing me as Rohit.

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Rekha ma’am is a force of talent. She has worked with my father as a co-star and has been a part of his directorial, Khoon Bhari Maang (1988). This was the first time I shared screen space with her. I remember shooting for the scene where she slaps me. Right before filming it, she told me that she would slap me in real life to portray the impact. When we shot the scene, she went into character and slapped me really hard. It sure got the emotions flowing within me and that translated on screen. But that one was one memorable slap!

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The first time I saw Jaadoo was when Australian artistes James and Lara shared a sketch based on the brief my father (Rakesh Roshan) had given them. It was their first draft and the moment we looked at it, we knew that this was Jaadoo. From then on, the journey to it becoming a tangible reality was a long one. Jaadoo was an animatronic character. It was wired inside and operated using a remote, so it took months to be made. During the shoot, we would often take about four to six hours to shoot a single scene with Jaadoo as the eyes and hands had to be manually synced for the emotions to be exhibited in the scene. It was a tedious task, taking retake after retake, but papa ensured that by the end of each day, we had a shot that was perfectly synced.

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I started shooting for Koi... Mil Gaya soon after wrapping up another film. I was pretty muscular and as much as I’d have liked to gain and lose weight for Rohit’s character arc, I was on a deadline. I only had a few weeks to showcase a physical transformation that would’ve taken months. Instead, I opted for baggy t-shirts that covered my biceps in the first half of the film. We brainstormed on a hairstyle that made my face look slightly rounder. For the second half of the film, I simply had to undo my construct and look a lot like my off-screen self at that time.