Aamir back with his next hit in August

As Rajkumar Hirani had himself admitted around the release of 3 Idiots, when the master strategist Aamir Khan is at work for the marketing and promotion of a film, a director can afford to take a back seat after the film is canned and censored. Nothing succeeds like success and two back to back all time blockbusters in the form of Ghajini and 3 Idiots meant that not too many voices were expected to be raised, intentionally or unintentionally, when it came to an Aamir Khan film.

However, one waits to see the kind of decisions that master strategist Aamir Khan would take when it comes to his next release - a production, Peepli Live. There is some amount of damage which has been done, courtesy the news of the film's lead actor Raghuveer Yadav being arrested (and subsequently released) spreading like a wild fire. This was in relation to a complaint which had been filed against him by his ex-wife. For Aamir who has managed a clean all around record for years, this is something that he would have been least expecting, especially since Peepli Live is also travelling the international film festival circuits.

Says a trade observer, "The film has competed in the Sundance Film Festival. Also, the movie has been picked up by the specialty German distribution company Rapid Eye Movies for a special screening at the Berlin International Film Festival. At the time when Aamir's film is making waves internationally, it is totally unwarranted that the media gets an inkling of its lead actor being involved in an alimony case. It reflects very badly on the actor and unnecessarily brings the film in the news for all the wrong reasons."

What would be of paramount importance now is to see how Aamir brings a turnaround in the situation and ensures that Peepli Live is seen and heard for all the right reasons as it marches towards it's release on 13th August, the day which leads to the Independence Day weekend. On contacted, Siddharth Roy Kapur, CEO, UTV Motion Pictures (which is co-producing the film along with Aamir Khan) said, "The film is pretty much on track for a 13th August release. It is too early to comment on anything else."