Arguably one of the most talented actors in Bollywood, Aamir Khan, riding high on the commercial success of his directorial debut 'Taare Zameen Par', takes pride in being acknowledged as a bankable star who has ushered in a breath of freshness in films here.

''I enjoy surprising my audience actually. I think I go with my gut and my instinct, when I am reading a script or listening to it I am the audience and if it moves me, it attracts me, I go towards it.

So, the initial decision of doing it is very, very instinctive," he said.

The success of 'Tare Zameen Par', a sensitive and moving portrayal of a dyslexic child, spoke wonders of the changing taste of Indian viewers, he told NDTV Profit in a freewheeling interview on 'The Unstoppable Indians'.

On Taare Zameen Par, he said the film is going to be the biggest hit of the year.

''I think OSO (the Shah Rukh-starrer Om Shanti Om) is the biggest hit so far and we have been quickly gaining on that and in the next couple of weeks we will probably cross the gross collections of OSO.

That is phenomenal not because it is my film, I think it is really amazing that a film like Taare Zameen Par which is a film about childcare and education is doing the biggest business in the year, you know, and that speaks a lot for what is happening to Indian cinema, it speaks a lot to what is happening to mainstream Indian cinema, it speaks a lot for our audience that they are, you know, really moving towards films and they have an appetite for different kinds of films.''

He said 'Taare Zameen Par' is an extremely unusual film in the mainstream cinema as it has got no leading lady, there is no romantic track, and even a star like him comes in halfway through the film.

Asked about being an actor and director simultaneously, he said he just took it in his stride.

''...it sounds strange for me to say but I just took it in my stride and it is not easy thing to do so and when I look back today I wonder how I did it.

But at that point of time it was crisis and I had to take over as director and I did...I just had to do something and I went in and I did it. Of course, it was difficult doing both the things but I had to do and I did.''

On not winning the Oscar for Lagaan, Aaamir said he would have liked it to win but was happy that it actually got nominated.

''...finally, getting nominated or winning is ultimately the opinion of a certain bunch of people and you have to take it as that. So, this is a very subjective field and you know people have different opinions and you have to respect that.''

He said he was happy that the film travelled on its own across the globe and managed to entertain people from different cultures and different backgrounds. ''So, when we talk of the Academy so actually what excites me is, all the members who saw actually really loved it.''

Aamir said at least 40 or 50 members of the Academy came up to him, his former wife Rina and Ashutosh Gowarikar and said ''we were so upset because your film did not win because we really loved it and we had voted for it and we were really hoping you won.

And that meant a lot and I felt that ultimately out of these 50 films from all over the world here is the film which has managed to touch or entertain these people so strongly that they selected it among the top five in a process which is very rigorous.

And that speaks a lot for the film.''

Asked about his role as Mangal Pandey, he said it was one of the toughest roles as there was very little recorded about him.

''I was very unsure what to base the character on and then I've realised that actually Mangal Pandey is, you know, who is a myth and I must play Mangal with the essence of what that myth is saying because in fact he is not real any more.

To put it differently because a lot of people have asked me that, have you really over-dramatized Mangal or have you made him a larger hero than he actually was.'' On commercial success of movies, he said it is a mass medium through which one tries to a large majority of people.

''Our profession is that of being different each time unlike in other professions where you have products for you, you know, you make something and then if that becomes successful you have to replicate that like, maybe, a Nokia phone, as successful as, you just keep producing many of those same models which people are liking.

But here it is quite the opposite, you make a film then it has to be something different each time.'' Aaamir said he always wanted to do different films and also wanted to be popular and reach out to lot many people.

''So, for me they were never two different things. It was always the same thing.

I am trying to say something different each time and reach out to a lot of people.''