Aamir Khan Productions

Background
This is the company from Bollywood director, actor and producer Aamir Khan. The company debuted with Khan's first production Lagaan in 2001, which then was marked as one of the landmarks of Bollywood films by gaining various awards and nominations. Aamir Khan then had a major filmography success with other box office hits such as Like Stars on Earth and 3 Idiots.

(June 15, 2001- )


Nicknames: "The Five Elements Logo", "Lowercase A", "The Rise of Aamir Khan"

Logo: On a black background, we very slowly pan up through a glass lowercase "a" as it turns towards the right, revealing a fiery texture on the inside. The texture then changes to various white particles which all move around one another. The camera then stops at the top of the a, as the texture inside it changes to a blue sky with white clouds. The camera slowly zooms out of the a and slowly positions itself in it's center as the particles from earlier return, but with other particles coming from the left, converging in the center then going away to the right. As they disappear, the background turns white with the "a" turning black. A red line then forms at the bottom of the screen as the text "AAMIR KHAN" and "PRODUCTIONS" in black then fade in on top of and brlow the line respectively. The logo then stays for a few seconds before fading to black.

Variant: A more modern variant exists where the "a" is already on the center of the screen and has not other texture, but slowly zooms out to it's position, with the background now being a black background with a light coming from the top. The "a" shines as it zooms out, then rests on the top before the text "AAMIR KHAN PRODUCTIONS PVT. LTD." fade in at the bottom with the red line drawing itself from it's left.

FX/SFX: Beautiful CGI animation!

Music/Sounds: Starting as an echoing deep drum thud, it then proceed to a one-note Tibet chanting, at that point where a calm synth comes playing 1 second later. It crossfades to a soothing piano pieces (which plays for the remainder of the logo time) and wind chimes. The wind chimes stay before being eaten by a warning rising synth before playing a nose flute-sounding instrument. After a one second pause, a violin string plays before gulfing to a somber Indian string (sarangi). This plays until the same thud as the beginning plays; this trigger a one-man male choir that played for 2 seconds before ending. All composed by A.R. Rahman for this ident, who also done music for Lagaan.

Availability: Debuted on Lagaan. May as well appear on other Aamir Khan productions during the 2000s.

Legacy: It's a beautiful logo and a favorite of various Indians, but some may be haunted by the very slow animation and darkness during the first half.