He’s probably one of the biggest movie stars in the world, yet most people in the United States have never heard of him.

I recently had the opportunity and privilege to sit down with long-time Bollywood icon Aamir Khan in Manhattan’s swanky Four Seasons Hotel. The actor-turned producer-turned director is fresh off a film festival run with his latest produced work, Peepli Live. The film is about a poor farmer who is thrust into the media spotlight after he’s overheard saying that he would commit suicide in order to collect the monies granted by the government to the families of indebted, deceased farmers. Though farmer suicides are a very real occurrence in India, the film takes a satirical, light approach to the heavy topic. Peepli Live was the first Indian film to compete at Sundance, earlier this year. Khan’s most recent role as an actor came with last year’s 3 Idiots, which has become the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time.

I discussed with Khan his career, the state of Hindi cinema, Bollywood and the Western world, and his latest production, Peepli Live.

It’s very common for a Hindi actor to work on multiple films simultaneously, but you’re well known to take on one film at a time. Why is that?

I don’t think I can work on more than one film at a time. I don’t think I can do that. It doesn’t work for me. Very early in my career, when I was working within the system of how things work, then I very quickly decided that that’s not how I wanted to work. So pretty much since then, I’ve been doing my own thing and working the way I feel happy working. And I get completely absorbed into what I’m doing, so I’d rather do one film at a time — all my energies and concentration out on that. And that’s how I’m happy working.

You must be pretty selective in which films you choose to work on. What are your criteria for selecting a project?

When I’m reading a script, I’m the audience — when I find it exciting and fun, when it touches me, moves me, makes me laugh or cry, or engages me, draws me in, you know. Anything that I love as an audience is what I want to do. So I go with my gut. I go with my instinctive reaction to the material, and if it’s something that I love, then I want to be part of it.

Others have described you as a method actor. How do you go about mentally and physically preparing for your often very different roles?

I’m not a trained actor, so I’m not sure whether what I’m doing is method acting. My attempt is to be the part. When I’m in front of the camera, I try to be the character.

You’ve starred in several breakout hits — recently among them 2008’s Ghajini and last year’s 3 Idiots, which is currently the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time. How do you process this type of success, and what does it mean to you?

I’m really happy with the success of that film [3 Idiots] and a lot of films that I’ve been in and have done really well in the past so many years. I feel happy and privileged to be able to work with such talented people. Any work that I’ve done is a result of the collaboration of a lot of people, especially the director. And it’s great to have a success like 3 Idiots.

3 Idiots and a film I did a few years before that called Taare Zameen Par — these are two films which not only were huge box office successes, but had a very deep impact on audiences. Both films were on education and both of these films had such a strong response with audiences — a very strong connection with audiences. It really changed the way people think. It changed the way parents look at their children. It changed their attitudes. It changed the way children feel about themselves. That kind of impact is very rare in cinema — to see an immediate change of how you think. And so when that happens, you feel really good about it.

You’ve been in films for quite awhile — an impressive career.

My first film came out in ’88. I’ve been working for the last 22 years as an actor, and then I began producing in 2000. And in 2006, I directed my first film.

In those 22 years, how have you seen Hindi films evolving? What have they become since then? And is it a positive evolution?

I think it is positive. I think there is a lot of young and fresh talent that’s come into this industry, and I think that a lot has been evolving and changing. I think that we’re making films that are on a variety of topics — different kinds of films, different genres of film. That was not happening when I came in. When I came in, it was pretty much one kind of film being made — what was then understood to be mainstream Bollywood cinema. But things have changed so much that in the last 10 years you really don’t know what is mainstream anymore. [Films] which followed the pattern of mainstream just collapsed, and then films that broke all rules went on to become huge successes. I think a lot is changing. I think audiences have changed. Back home in India, people are much more open to view different kinds of films. And filmmakers who come in who want to make different kinds of films — there’s a lot happening, and that’s good.

Where is Bollywood 10 years from now?

I have no idea. I’m not good with predictions. What I’d like to see, I can tell you. What I’d like to see is a lot more emphasis given to writing. I think that’s one of the big things that we need to look at, as an industry. We should give a lot more emphasis and value towards good writing.

In the Western world, Bollywood is seen as a niche genre, but, of course, Bollywood films comprise several genres — drama, comedy, action, romance. Where do you think Hindi films fit in the global film arena?

I’m not quite sure about that. The best way to describe Bollywood would be, it’s like a Broadway musical. Most of them are musicals — not all of them are, but most of them are musicals. In general, the emotions are broad. I think one of the other aspects of Bollywood which I think is a very important characteristic of our cinema is hope. Most of the films have a lot of hope in them. So there’s a [sweetness to them] — larger than life, not very realistic. And there’s a lot of hope in them — kind of like the films that Hollywood made in the ’50s and ’60s. I don’t think [Bollywood has] become cynical as yet, which I do see in a lot of cinema in different parts of the world. A lot of cynicism has crept in, but Indian cinema still has a lot of hope in it.

The other thing about Indian cinema is that we have such a large and healthy audience of our own that creative talent in India has never looked outside of India for an audience, and they’ve never needed to. Our audience is people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, and then a lot of people across the globe. Hindi films are very popular in the Middle East, Russia, Malaysia, Singapore. We have a whole bunch of people around the world who, traditionally, have been watching Indian films and are an audience for Indian cinema, and that audience is very large and very healthy, and that’s the audience we’ve been making films for. We’ve never felt the need to look anywhere else for an audience.

I’m someone who’s grown up in a city like Bombay, which is a large city, and all of my education is in English, my first language is English, I think in English. So, therefore, [there are] a lot of influences on me. I’m Indian, but a lot of influences on me are from outside of India. So what I come out of it can never be purely Indian. You know what I mean? Because I’m a result of all the influences on me, and there are many people like me who are Indian but have influences from all over the world. For example, I think Peepli Live is one such film which, in my opinion, is purely Indian. It’s purely Indian. But I believe it has the potential to engage and entertain a world audience, and entertain someone who’s never seen an Indian film before. It’s funny, it’s humorous, it moves fast, and it’s saying something of importance. It’s a great window into rural India. And it resonates with what is happening here in the US, in the sense that small farmers are having a tough time. Small business houses are having a really rough time as a result of the recession. A lot of people have lost jobs. So it resonates with people in the US, as I’m sure it does with people across the world.

One of the aspects of the film is survival, and how each one of us does what he or she thinks he needs to do in order to survive. So whether it’s Budhia the farmer, whether it’s a politician, whether it’s somebody in the administration, or whether it’s a media person, or any one of us — ultimately does what we think need to do in order to survive in our circumstance. And so, on a certain level, this film is about survival.

I believe the film — while it is purely Indian — has the potential to engage a world audience. It resonates. And that’s the reaction we got at Sundance when we were there for the festival. It was in competition at Sundance and people really loved it. It got great reviews, and the audience really loved it — and it was predominantly American. It was at the Berlin Film Festival, and there, again, we got a great response. It seems to be working with people from different backgrounds.

In addition to acting, you’ve also ventured into directing and producing. The first film to come out of Aamir Khan Productions was 2001’s Lagaan — only the third Indian film to be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Most recently, you produced Peepli Live, the first Bollywood film to compete at Sundance, as you mentioned. So you’re obviously resonating to a Western audience, which must feel terrific, but at the same time it doesn’t feel like you’re compromising anything from a Hindi perspective.

I believe that when I come across material that excites me, I want to make it honestly. I don’t make it for any audience. I don’t make it for a Hindi audience. I don’t make it for a Western audience. I just make it for myself. And the material dictates how it should be treated and how it should be made — so you have to be honest with the material. I believe that we’re all human beings, and if we have a story to tell which touches the human being, which has human emotions, then it doesn’t matter which part of the world you’re from. So when I see a film like Life is Beautiful, which is set in Italy, it’s about a period of history which I have no connection with, but I just love it because I think it’s a wonderful human story. It moves me. It touches me. So I don’t think of an audience when I’m making the film. The film dictates how it should be made. Then the audience decides whether it wants to see it or not.

Peepli Live brings to light the tragic circumstance in India in which poor farmers commit suicide so that their families can take advantage of the stipend given to them by the government, just to help them survive. It’s a heavy-handed topic, but the film takes a satirical and humorous approach to this. As the producer, did you have any concerns about how some might react to the film’s take on this sensitive topic — specifically the use of humor and satire to get the message across?

No I didn’t. When I read the script, this is how it was. And so this is how it is in its original form. I didn’t see it in any other way. What I read worked for me beautifully. I think the fact that it is humorous doesn’t take away at all from its edge, of what it is saying. In fact, if anything, it adds to the edge of what it is saying.

What was it about the topic of farmer suicides that attracted you to take on Peepli?

I don’t think the film is about farmer suicides. It’s to be viewed in the backdrop of farmer suicides, but it’s not a film about farmers or their problems or what issues that farmers are facing, and why they are committing suicide. The film is more about the growing divide between urban and rural India, and how we, as a society, are focusing all our energies, our emotions, our wealth, our resources — are all focused and concentrated towards cities. Our villages have not been for very long life sustaining in a healthy way, which results in a lot of migration from villages to cities, which is not good for cities or for villages. And I’m sure it must be fairly traumatic — psychologically, emotionally —  for those people who have to migrate for different and various reasons. They’re wrenched out of their places because of the need to be somewhere else. They’re pulled out of somewhere from where their roots are, their relationships are, their emotions are. They’re taken away from their families and their kids, and I’m sure that’s not very happy. I don’t want to be anywhere else but Mumbai, the city that I lived in, where my emotions are. But if I had to move somewhere else in order to survive, I would, but I would not be happy about it. Now that’s happening on a mass scale back home in India. And this is also a phenomenon that’s happening everywhere else in the world. People are constantly moving towards cities. So this is not unique to India. I think this is happening all over the world.

It’s just one more thing that makes the film attractive to a global audience.

One more thing to think about. We need to stop and think about that, because all we’re thinking about is us in the city. I can speak about India. I don’t know about the US, but in India — we in urban India — most of us are not even aware what rural life is like and what we would go through. We don’t even know that they exist. They are invisible to us. And that’s the bulk of the population. It doesn’t matter to us that there are people who have to walk miles to get water and don’t have electricity and don’t have medical facilities. If my son falls ill, I’m panicked. It doesn’t occur to me that that happens everyday in villages, and there is no doctor.

Peepli Live definitely sheds some light on this. One more question, and it’s kind of broad: What makes a good Hindi film?

A good script. A good director. Good, solid storytelling. Good performances. Real locations. Pretty much the same things that make a good film anywhere in the world. Good editing … I don’t remember who said this … “Films are not made. They’re re-made” [Irving Thalberg]. So it’s on the editing table that you make a film.

Note: Peepli Live opens in New York and LA on August 13.