Aamir bowled over by snake boat on Kerala visit

Kochi: Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan was spellbound seeing the famous snake boat used during the boat races in Kerala here today. Khan, 46, who is on a three day visit to Kerala in connection with the promo shoot of 'Bharat Dharshan' - a project being planned by Aamir Khan productions, saw the snake

boat with 120 rowers and Pulinkunnu in Alapuzha this morning.

"Seeing school children in a small fishing craft, Aamir got into a similar boat and was very excited," T M Rafeeq, of Pakka Pakka Ad films, which is doing the promo shoot, told PTI.

Khan was experimenting with a new project and its test shoot was going on now with the actor, he said. The project is reportedly about the life of people in various states in India.

The '3 Idiots' star also examined the Chinese fishing nets in Fort Kochi near Kochi, which are in use for the last 500 years, and tried his hand at operating them, sources said.

These famed nets are fast vanishing from the Kochi coastline due to huge maintenance cost and poor catch. Called 'Cheena Vala' in local parlance, the huge cantilevered fishing nets are believed to have been brought by Portuguese from Macau, once a Portuguese colony.

"Keralites are very friendly people," said the actor, who is visiting the state for the second time.

Seeing the huge crowd of spectators at Fort Kochi and Alapuzha, he said he did not know he had so many fans in the state.

Khan, who arrived here yesterday, shot for a while at the Alapuzha beach. He played cricket with kids at the beach as part of the shoot. Seeing a huge crowd, he waived at people and obliged the autograph hunters.

Briefly interacting with media personnel at Alapuzha, he said would love to do Malayalam films. "I would love to if the role is such that the person does not know the language," Khan quipped.