'She came for anthropology and stayed for me': The Lagaan love story from the movie set that led to a 26-year marriage

Dubai: He went to Bhuj to film Lagaan. He came back with a wife.

Most people remember Lagaan for the cricket match, the Oscar nomination, or the songs. Amin Hajee remembers it for the moment he locked eyes with a 23-year-old anthropology graduate from Bristol who had no intention of falling in love on a Bollywood set.

As the Ashutosh Gowariker film marks 25 years, the story of how Amin, who played fan-favourite temple drummer Bagha, ended up marrying a British woman he met during the shoot remains one of the sweetest stories from the movie set.

How Charlotte ended up in Bhuj

Charlotte was never supposed to be part of the film. Her brother Jamie, a county cricketer who stood at 6'5", had auditioned for and landed a spot as one of the British cricketers in the climactic match sequence. But the production needed more than just players. They wanted British women to fill out the pavilion scenes as the wives and families of the English characters, dressed in period costumes with parasols.

The team told Jamie to bring his family along. They would cover the flights and pay a small stipend for two weeks of work. Charlotte, fresh out of university, saw it as an opportunity to explore the landscape around Bhuj. She came for the anthropology. She stayed for Amin.

Or as Amin puts it, with the kind of humour that clearly keeps their marriage ticking: "She saw me and thought, 'This specimen needs further research.' That research has been going on for 26 years now, and the poor thing is still paying three times the Lagaan."

From a film set romance to a life in the hills

After dating, the couple married and Charlotte moved to India permanently. They now live in the hills with their two daughters, Summer and Sky, both of whom they homeschool. In an Instagram post a few years ago, Amin noted that Charlotte had spent more of her life in India than she ever did in Bristol. She has picked up Hindi, understands Marathi, and has thrown herself into work with the World Pickleball League alongside raising their girls.

The couple recently attended the 25th anniversary celebration of Lagaan in Mumbai with their daughters, posting a family photo on the red carpet with the caption: "Thanks Lagaan for your greatest gift."

Charlotte was the reason Amin found his second career

Behind the sweet love story is a tougher professional one. After Lagaan, Amin found himself in a difficult spot. The film had been so good, and his performance so closely tied to the quality of Gowariker's script and direction, that nothing that came his way afterwards felt worth doing.

He turned down offer after offer, unwilling to take roles that he felt would diminish what he had built. He has been blunt about it, saying Lagaan "completely destroyed" his career because nothing came close. "I'm not a great actor," he has said. "I managed to give a good performance thanks to the script, the director and the team."

It was Charlotte and Gowariker who eventually pushed him to find a new direction. Gowariker told him plainly that if he wanted to support a family, he needed to earn, and offered him the chance to co-write the 2004 film Swades. That collaboration kickstarted a writing career that led to Vikram Bhatt's Haunted 3D and Dangerous Ishq, and eventually to Amin's own directorial debut with the 2021 thriller Koi Jaane Na.

Lagaan was apparently very good for romance

Amin and Charlotte were not the only couple whose relationship began on that set. Aamir Khan met Kiran Rao during production, where she was working as an assistant director. The two began dating after Aamir's separation from first wife Reena Dutta, married in 2005, and had son Azad before separating in 2021. Aamir is now set to marry Gauri Spratt on 5 July.

And Charlotte's brother Jamie, he got married on the Lagaan set too. He and his girlfriend Catherine held their wedding at the same temple where Amin's character Bagha lived as the drummer in the film. Aamir and Reena stood in as the family who gave the bride away, and the entire baraat was made up of the cast and crew.

"It was magical," Amin said. Hard to argue with that.