It’s tempting to see him as an awakening revolutionary; his great grand uncle was Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, leader of India’s National Congress for 10 years.

But I quickly gathered that the story of Aamir Khan, like that of Bollywood’s trajectory into world cinema, has been evolutionary. I couldn’t squeeze him into actor-cum-activist classification and in my own way locate him as an anomaly from the singing and dancing Indian film world that I was most familiar with. To really get into the world of this casually dressed man who began the chat by making me a cup of tea, I had to re-adjust my cinematic lens.

He is part of a troupe of celebrity filmmakers in town for the BAFTA Goes Bollywood event, 14-16th July which hopes to “understand the Bollywood phenomenon” and celebrate its “energy, innovation and ingenuity” and contributions to world cinema.

The backbone of this industry is the staple and successful diet of “masala films;” a combination of action, romance and family politics, all of which filter into everyday conversations and ideas about morality, romantic love and family relationships. Khan’s X factor is what he is increasingly adding to this; an emotional investment into scripts around Indian Nationalism, Hindu-Muslim relationships, cross-border terrorism and government corruption. And this is radically altering the relationship between film and audience.

Aamir recalls his most memorable film Rang De Basanti: A Generation Awakens (2006) (RDB) which went on to cause a storm at the box office and beyond.

“Tolerate things the way they are or take responsibility to change them.”

Scenes from the movie were mimicked and cited as young people flocked to the streets of Delhi and Mumbai to hold mass candlelit vigils demanding justice for model Jessica Lall, allegedly murdered in 1999 by 9 individuals, including a son of a prominent politician in a bar full of witnesses. As those accused were acquitted in February, a sea of peaceful protest descended upon the cities forcing this previously low-key case into the media limelight.

So, Indian politicians are feeling quite uncomfortable with Aamir expressing his concerns. Gujarat's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party banned Fanaa (2006), a love story between a blind girl and a Kashmiri independence terrorist after he called on the regional government to adequately compensate 35,000 people that could be displaced by the controversial construction of the Narmada dam. Cinema owners refused to show it in fear that pro-dam supporters would initiate acts of vandalism. They weren’t wrong to be fearful. When the film was screened in one theatre last month, a man set fire to himself during the intermission in protest against the actor’s stance.

But Aamir passionately defends his right to speak: “I’m an actor but along with that I’m a citizen of the country and in that sense I would like to be a concerned one. To me as an Indian, it exposes the hooligans we are voting for. I’m happy they are stopping the release of the films, attacking the theatre, burning my posters because the public get to see that these are the lumpen elements that are going to take the country forward. I have the right to say what I said because this is what our forefathers have fought for – a freedom to express oneself in a democratic manner without violence.”

One of his forefathers, Maulana Azad was renowned for his shoulder to shoulder struggle with Gandhi and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to obtain independence from British rule. He advocated Indian Muslims working with Hindus to secure ‘Swaraj’ (Self-rule). some of his memorable remarks including his address at the Presidential Address of the Congress Session in 1923:

"If an angel were to descend from the clouds today, settle on the Qutub Minar of Delhi and proclaim from there that India will attain Swaraj provided Hindu-Muslim Unity is renounced, then I would renounce Swaraj and not sacrifice Hindu-Muslim Unity, because if Swaraj is delayed, it is the loss to India, but if Hindu-Muslim Unity is lost, it is the loss to humanity."

Some of Aamir’s recent movies propose a similar ideal of national unity in a modern global context. In particular, Oscar nominated Lagaan (2002), selected under Best Foreign Film category in 2002 and The Rising (2004), both period screenplays set in the 1800s, pulling together characters like the ostracized untouchable, the upper-caste snob, the Muslim, Sikh and the handicapped versus the colonial invading Brits of the Raj. “They talk about the right of every individual to hold his head as high as the next” he explains. “It is questioning the right of any superpower to enter into another society take it over rule it, exploit them financially and decide what’s good for them. Why I was attracted to this, although it is set in 1800s, is how relevant it is today. I see similarities with what the US is doing in Iraq or other parts of the world over the last decade.”

He assures me that it is changes in his personal and socio-political life that are affecting his recent vocality and choice of films rather than his films affecting his beliefs. I choose not to probe him about his recent marriage to Kiran Rao (known to be from a politically active family) and instead explore whether the growth of Hindu authoritarian movements in India, which has put religious minorities and their loyalties to the nation under the microscope, has had any influence upon him.

“I’m Muslim – but I have no doubts in my mind that I’m an Indian first, because that is how I feel emotionally. Unfortunately, it does bother me that it is the right wing, Hindu, Christian, Muslim or Jew that is having its say in everything whether in attack or defence, to further their interests, to polarise people and poison people’s minds about who they are and where they belong.”

Aamir Khan is offering alternative narratives, using his films to stir the imagination of his audience to appeal to an idealistic national unity. This is an interesting shift in storytelling for popular film, renowned for popcorn, entertainment and escapism rather than social activism.

To understand this direction that Aamir and Bollywood are heading in requires the foregrounding of its emotional intelligence rather than the economics of its global boom. In doing this, a rather different picture of their contributions to world cinema emerges; the power of commercial filmmaking to engage powerfully with global developments in everyday socio-political worlds, to tap into the real-life sensitivities of the audience and use this space to critically reflect upon these and even shape them.

This idealism, as shown by Rang De Basanti, can be infectious.