Aamir Khan is a happy man. It is not very often that your debut film as a producer wins an Oscar nomination.

The 74th Annual Academy Awards will be held on March 24 at the Kodak Theatre, Los Angeles. Aamir, [director] Ashutosh Gowariker, [Aamir's wife] Reena Dutt, [Gowariker's wife] Sunita and ace costume designer Bhanu Athaiya are anxiously awaiting the outcome of Lagaan at an exclusive West Hollywood hotel in LA.

Aamir recounts his journey to the Oscars:

To think that I laughed at Ashu's [director Ashutosh Gowariker] script, when he first told me the story of Lagaan.

It had a rural setting; it would be a change of image. That hadn't worked earlier, when he tried to change my image in Baazi. I told him the two of us had proved we were an unsuccessful pair. Plus it was a period film. I told him it wouldn't work.

Nevertheless, Ashu wrote the whole script. After that, he called up, saying he had a script for me. It occurred to me that it might be the same story. I refused to waste my time listening to it again. He said, "Refuse it after you read it."

I said, "I'm refusing before reading it." I even told him that after two flops, he shouldn't even try offering it to anyone else; he would destroy his own career.

He persisted; I agreed to give him those four hours.

He read out the whole script -- with dialogues -- but emoted each character's part. Suddenly, it hit me that here was something that might work. But it was too big, too expensive. It required a huge commitment in terms of time. I agreed to it. I also knew that since Ashu's last two films hadn't succeeded, he wouldn't get a producer easily. That's when I decided I would produce Lagaan myself.

We decided to shoot it in one long, five-month stint in Bhuj.

Once in Bhuj, discipline took over. Everyone had to get up at 5 am, had to be ready at a given time and inside the bus leaving for the village where the sets were put up. If anyone was late, the bus left without the actor/ actress or unit member.

Gracy Singh, the female lead, discovered this on the first day: "I was two minutes late. When I came to the bus stop, it had left without me. This discipline continued for all five months of the shoot."

Aamir, famous for his practical jokes, also found time to play some on his cast. Snakes and scorpions abounded at the sets of Lagaan. As Gracy Singh waited for her cue one day, she felt something crawl up behind her. Her shrieks brought out Aamir's guffaws. He was the creepy crawly who had frightened her!

After the unit returned to Mumbai, a year of post-production followed before Lagaan was released. Aamir and Ashutosh then wanted a voiceover. They couldn't decide between [poet-lyricist] Gulzar, [director] Ramesh Sippy or [actor] Amitabh Bachchan. They finally settled for Bachchan.

Bachchan himself is happy about the success of the film. He remarks, "All the films for which I lent my voice failed at the box office. Lagaan broke that jinx."

Lagaan is a landmark film for me personally. Reena, my wife, doesn't like me bringing work home. I respect that. But for Lagaan, Reena looked after production details, played hostess to the overseas actors, got contracts drawn up for the farmers in Bhuj whose land we leased. She looked after everything.

And, oh yes, I had my periods of doubt every day of the making of the film.

After the film was made, things just happened -- Lagaan artistes playing the cricket match, contests, Lagaan being made into a comic book. All of it just fell into place. It was strange -- because Ashutosh and I often discussed that the characters of the film were like comic book characters. And then [publisher] Egmont International actually made the film into a comic book.

While I am very happy that Ashutosh made such a beautiful film for me, I can't concentrate on any other film -- it is just taking so much of my time!

It has been a tough journey. Most people are excited about the success of Lagaan. While I am happy about it, what is more important for me is the journey itself. It's like when you are trying to climb a mountain. Some people like the feeling of having reached the top. For others, the whole journey is just as exciting.

And then we decided to try for an Oscar The only drawback, so far, is that Lagaan hasn't had a mainstream release in the US. The Academy members were unaware about Lagaan. The trend hitherto has been to omit watching Indian entries -- jury members have to see at least 14 films from the 18 they have in their group. Mostly, they skip the Indian film because they don't think much of the [Indian] films they have seen.

I don't know whether to blame the Film Federation of India (FFI) for this. But I guess we're all in this together. If there is something we are not doing correctly, we all deserve to be blamed. Though I have two observations to make: FFI selected Lagaan for an Oscar entry. This shows that they thought the film was good enough.

Lagaan did win an Oscar nomination. So I suppose, going by what happened, they did do something right.

You know, at the time Lagaan was nominated, I had lost my voice. I got the best compliment ever from my production staff then -- they unanimously said I looked so nice without my voice; they didn't have to listen to my instructions!

Sony Pictures Classics will release the film in the United States. Lagaan will be released in the US after the Oscars. Sony wants to be part of the promotion leading up to the Oscars. I leave it to their experience -- they have released films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon earlier and know what to do.

The jury will now watch the nominated films; I am not allowed to be present for the screenings. In New York, I will meet Michael Parker, head of Sony Classics, and go through our strategy with him. Then I will know whether I have anything more to do.

For now, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed.