10 yrs of Ta Ra Rum Pum: Ali Haaji remembers learning diction from Saif Ali Khan

Actor Ali Haaji shares how being a part of a film like Ta Ra Rum Pum (2007) — starring Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji — was a dream come true for him.

Remember Champ, actors Rani Mukerji and Saif Ali Khan’s on-screen son in the 2007 film Ta Ra Rum Pum? As the film completes 10 years of its release today, here’s catching up with Ali Haaji (Champ), the cute kid who earlier played Aamir Khan and Kajol’s son in the 2006 film Fanaa (also directed by Kunal Kohli). Ali now owns a theatre production, Clean Slate Studios.

Ali Haaji played Aamir Khan and Kajol’s on-screen son in Fanaa (2006) before he shot for Ta Ra Rum Pum (2007).

“For Fanaa, I had long hair. So for Ta Ra Rum Pum, I had to chop it off and sport spikes. That change was quite exciting,” recalls Ali, who was six years old when he did the Saif-Rani starrer. Now 16, he says it was a “really cool film” to be a part of as a kid. “It was about car racing and being a boy who loves cars, we had some mad moments on the sets... Being a little kid and having seen New York City and Times Square and Manhattan in so many films, it was nothing short of a dream come true going to that city; and we stayed there for almost two months, so that was crazy.”

Ali cherishes the time they visited the Disney Store. “Having watched all of Disney cartoons and being a fan of toys, shooting for a song there was again a dream being realised. It was such a blast.” He even shares a funny anecdote. “Rani, Saif and Angelina were pretty good dancers and I really couldn’t dance as a kid. For the songs, the choreographer had a tough time making me dance. It was so funny that even now when I look at those scenes, everyone has their steps right and I am there jumping and dancing around like a cartoon. God! What was I doing?”

Recalling fun times spent with his on-screen parents, Saif and Rani, Ali shares, “Well, I often called them by their screen names to make things simpler. With Rani, we used to crack a lot of jokes. And Saif, he’s really cool, a chilled out guy. I remember I had some fun scenes with him. As a kid, my pronunciation was not entirely correct. Saif would often correct me. For instance, I’d say ‘flim’ for ‘film’, and Saif would laughingly correct me.”

Playing Champ, Ali says he could relate to him at many levels. “There’s definitely a part of Champ within me. He was a really emotional kid and that’s how I am, even today,” says the actor, who has been part of more than 100 commercials so far.

And what about his on-screen sister, Princess [played by Angelina Idnani]? Ali says that they enjoyed a love-hate relationship both on- and off-screen. “As kids, we would do lots of masti and sometimes we were just in our own zones. I think we had developed that Champ and Princess relationship even off screen to some extent because of which we could put that on-screen in a very sweet manner,” he says.

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