⁠Imtiaz Ali On Love, Heartbreak, Rockstar, Tamasha & Bollywood Filmmaking | FO517 Raj Shamani

You don't like happy endings?

Whenever we met, there was no chance of an unhappy ending.There was no chance of a happy ending in Rockstar.If the film is about to start and I want to break my heart, then it should break in the end.Sometimes, what's left behind, what you didn't get, that's also a beautiful thing.

Imtiaz Ali, writer, director, and filmmaker.Today, we talked to him about his life, filmmaking, and those emotions that make his films so unique.Why do movies become a cult later?What do you think is the reason?I know the reason.

This generation is different, sir.Because of the internet boom and media boom, people have become very sharp.Emotionally, they have become very fragile.So these broken characters that you see in my films, they are getting attached to them very quickly.Which one is your favourite?The making of Rockstar was...

It's not something that anyone of us would like to repeat either.Why am I telling you?It was crazy.It was a bit crazy.Losing weight, losing hair.It was a bit like that.

Have you heard of the German word Exisu?There's a deep desire to want something.Someone wants freedom.Someone wants to leave an uncomfortable life.Someone is someone else.And almost every character of yours have that.

In your life, is that anything?Iqbal says that you think that life is a secret.Life is nothing but the desire to fly.I feel that thrill comes to you.And that thrill is perhaps what I'm looking for.Till date, this is the only thing Rockstar movie doesn't understand.

For an artist like him, his guitar is a holy symbol.He burns it so that he can feel something.He's lying in that pool of water and he's staring at this burning guitar because he wants to feel the burn.But he's not feeling it.It's not easy for him to punish himself.

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Tell me, if someone is seeing you for the first time, how would you explain yourself?

Who are you?Let's say no one knows who you are, for that 1 % audience.Tell me, who are you?I'd say I'm a film director.That's it.That's your only, that's the only identity you like.

That's the identity that explains something.What does it explain?To people.It explains that this guy is morally ambiguous.He is apolitical.He is interested in stories, imagination and human traits.

He must be understanding people.He must be interested in people.This is what you express in your first statement.But for a director, directors at least have to have that this basic minimum common denomination that they have to be interested in stories and people.

So let's talk about that only.Film director and stories.And try to understand patterns from your life.Okay.Let's try.If I will try to bring that up.

Because you said you're a film director.Let me go back to your childhood where I was reading something about it.You said that I was a very awkward, weird kid.And I used to lie.I used to lie in school.I used to lie in the colony.

Like, you know, you were lying.And then you look at your movies.Your characters also lie a lot.Wade tries to be Don.Aditya pretends to be a musician by going to his house.And then Janardhan tries to be Jordan.

Harry tells everyone that he is not.There's a pattern in that.Is that coming from your own life?

You have said this for the first time.It must be.I feel that First, I used to lie.Later, I started thinking, why should I lie?Why shouldn't I call it fiction?

It would seem more respectable.

And gradually, when you grow up, your courage increases.You can share the things you are hiding from people.The stories I used to tell, the fake stories, that I did this or that today,

But did you realize at some point, ki main aisa director bante zara hun jo He writes about such boys who lie, who want to tell their identity more than themselves, which is a very normal thing.A lot of people have done that in their life.

No, I had never thought that these people hide their identity.Ved and Tara, I was deliberately hiding the Vedas.But the enjoyable lies often come in my films.But I never thought that this would happen in my life.But I used to lie a lot.I still lie sometimes.

What do you say?I was on the podcast, Farhan Akhtar was there.

One of my biggest, actually, worst traits was that I was a liar.And I was like, what does it mean?He's like, it's not like I'm lying for some big reason.I'm just like, mom's asking, where were you?I can say I was playing cricket.But I won't say I was playing cricket.

I'll say something else.And without even realizing, it becomes a habit.Did you go through something like that?Yes.

I've gone through exactly like that.So I'll think, what should I say to satisfy him?So I'll say that.I didn't register what the truth was.I registered what was optimal.

In this particular situation.And then why do you write like this in movies?Why do you try to show fiction to characters?

The way you're asking me, I feel that...This is the reason why my characters often suffer.

I feel that...Suffer the journey or suffering?

The journey.So what happens in that is that people sometimes try to get out of their defined characteristics.When they are flirting with the edges of their constitution or reputation, then it becomes an interesting drama.Because then a person is really open.If a person has a very defined boundary, then that person is not open to the other.But if he himself is dabbling that I am not what I am, or what I think, or what the society thinks of me, then what happens is that things become dramatic.

And drama can only happen when a person's character changes.This is the difference between character and role, as we were told.In a drama, the role is always the same.If I am a film director, then that is my role.But only when my character changes, will there be drama.So often in plays, they say, which character are you playing?

So, in order to change, it is important to be open.When you come out of it, it becomes easier to be open.Because those people don't know who you are.Then you can also forget yourself.Similarly, when you are making a false story, I'm not saying that you should lie, but when you are making a story or you are explaining yourself by saying something else or introducing yourself, then you still have that opportunity of being open to accept someone and to change.This is what I feel.

True.In some sort.

Has it happened with you?You've changed at some point?badal nahi rahe ho, toh phir grow bhi toh nahi kar rahe na.Growth can be a cruel process.And growth is essentially a dramatic process.Toh I feel uske liye kuch tootega nahi toh kuch neha nahi banega.

And mein rishton ki particularI'm talking about your own personality.When you see things in the world, you are influenced by them, you acquire good things, then obviously you will change.And you should change.That's what I feel.You should change.

Because if you try to stop something inside you, then that's artificial.It's a show of what you used to be.That would be even more suffocating.At least here it's like, I feel like I'm here, so I'm accepting it.But there I'll be acting, so that would be a complete lie.And a lot of people do that, I feel.

It's not like all my relationships are good, but I feel that those are the ones where you put on a mask, you and I put on a mask and walk in front of each other.

That's one more pattern in your movies.One is actually I'll talk about lighter pattern.Lighter is Why do movies become a cult later?

What is the reason?What do you think is the reason?I know the reason.Okay.The reason is.First it's a flop, then it's a cult.

It's a cult.Look, to put it simply, I'm learning.Whatever I want to say, Barbaat kare irshad mere.

Alag baat hai.

But jo kahaani hai meri, jo bhai kehna chah raho, kahaani mein jo cheez mujhe exciting lagti hai, wo achi baat hai, main bada excited hoon.But main usko simplicity se keh par rahe hoon.not?That you understood it easily and enjoyed it.You didn't even understand it easily, you enjoyed it.This ability will never come into my life, but I will always move towards it.

I can simplify my stories.I can make it in a simpler way that anybody can enjoy it immediately.Hopefully, by doing more and more work, by seeing more and more people, by seeing more places, I will become better and better and be able to make a tamasha.may be able to make a rock star in an easier way.So that...I may not be able to become one.

But I can certainly try to go in their way as a storyteller.Or to go in the way of Ved Vyas as a storyteller.These are such complicated things.We have grown up listening to all this.So in us too, our heart and mind, that of an Indian, is very philosophical.It understands a lot of subtleties.

No one can understand Czech or Portuguese or English.So because I am an Indian, the stories that come to me, there is sophistication in them.But I need the ability to say it easily.This is my effort in life.I will keep trying to improve it.

But if it is difficult for people later, why does it happen that people find it easy later?People start understanding later.Because they see it 3 -4 times.

They see it 3 -4 times.Maybe something attracts them.Then they see it again.Then they see it 3 times.Then 4 times.Or they talk.

Or they don't understand.Or they understand something after a while.I understand it after a while.The next day, or a year later.But by then, the box office meter would have been out of order.So I'm very simple.

I'll try to be simple.I'll try to make it easier.I'll try to invite more and more people to my films.But like Rockstar specifically, right?It just got re -released, so it did really well.

Yes.This time, did you see a lot of people who weren't even interested before?Toh unko toh pehli baar complicated lagi hogi, but they loved it.No, you are right.

You are actually right.Because kya hua, ke main gaya Rockstar dekhne ke liye is baar, pichli baar jab release hui thi.Ab suna ki phir se release ho rahi hai 30th April ko.But jo main dekhne gaya tha, us baar kya hua?Young log the, yaar yeh log toh matlab 15 -16 saal pehle yeh film release hui thi.Bahut hi young log the.

Un log bilkul hosh mein nahi hongi picture ko samajhne ke ya dekhne ke bhi.They got it first time.They got everything.This generation is different, sir.Because of the internet boom and media boom, people have become very sharp.And emotionally, they have become very fragile.

So, these broken characters that you see in my films, people are getting attached to them very quickly.them very quickly.And you are right.Because immediately they experienced that thing.Laila Majnu.Laila Majnu was a humongous hit in the re -release.

And for the first time, I mean, God forbid, something like this happens to any film.It was very bad.And in the re -release, I mean, unprecedented.Unprecedented.Now they are making Heer Ranjha.because of the success of the re -release of Laila Majnu.

Even in this office, there are probably 100 people and those who are aged 24 and below are more cult fans of movies like Rockstar and Laila Majnu than anyone who's above.May their tribe increase.

My future will be secure, Raj.My future will be secure if this happens.Because we say that young people watch more movies.

It's an ego pattern in your movie, which is running away.The character, the main lead, he's running away from his home.Or he's running away from something.Why does this happen?Like, what are they running away from?Geet was running away.

Veera ran away in the end.Ranbir, the rock star, leaves his home.He doesn't want to go back.Everyone is running away.

In the first picture, Socha Na Tha, in the end, everyone runs away.That's a happy ending.I don't know.I feel like I ran away from something.Like I can understand Veera's case very easily.In the highway.

He had a habit of living in an uncomfortable situation.And he could not get out of that situation.

Ranbir in Tamasha was running away?Ranbir in Tamasha wanted to be somebody else.Ranbir and JJ wanted to become sick.Have you noticed that in the majority, not every, but in the majority, you don't even have happy endings?You don't like, like, maybe these Laila Majnu, Tamasha Waza, Rockstar, Harry Met Sejal, like, you don't like happy endings?

No, I do.I don't.Sometimes the film just says it.There's a pattern.Like, in Jab We Met, there was no chance of an unhappy ending.Or I didn't think about it.

But in Rockstar, there was no chance of a happy ending.If the film is about to start and I want to break my heart, then it should break in the end.But, and this happened when I was writing its ending, Love Aaj Kal, which was the first Love Aaj Kal.In the ending I had written before, Jai and Meera separate from each other.So that is how that happened.Sometimes it just comes naturally.

I don't like or dislike particularly.

And is that the reason why you say, ki main patthar diloon, and then you make everyone else cry?Because jo start patthar dil se ho rahi hai story, then you want everyone to have like a soft heart?But which one is a lie?Like the movies that you write?Or ki aap patthar dilon yeh statement is a lie?

You are asking me a very personal and deep type of question.I don't know.I never thought about that.It's not as though...I think both are right.It is possible for both these things to co -exist.

This is what I feel.Explain.Explain in the sense that what I call stone -heartedness, despite that, what you are saying in the film is also true.You know, because you're never stable in life.We just talked about a fact, just a position where Ranbir's character Ved is on the table looking at the girl.On the face of it, he is pushing the girl away.

But deep inside he wants her to come to him.That you don't want to show, but you're wanting to express, to say something.And you're not able to.Or my emotion expresses itself through fiction.You know, maybe it is that.

Have you heard of a word, German word, Exizu?Exizo.Zizu.Zizu.It's like the word, I'm paraphrasing the meaning.Zizu means a deep desire to long for something.

Like I want something and I don't know why I want it.Like they're just burning desire to want it.Most languages don't have a word for it.It's just a word in German.And almost every character of yours have that.There's a deep desire to want something.

Someone wants freedom.Someone wants to leave an uncomfortable life.Someone wants love.But everyone should want something.That's all.So in your life, is that anything that you genuinely long for?

Yeah, but it's not a particular thing like that.I feel that I long for some moments of when I'm at work, when I'm in the making of a film or writing something.Yeah, for that flow to happen, for a kind of connection, you know, sometimes like Rumi says that you feel a river moving inside you.Or Iqbal says that...Life is nothing but the desire to fly.So I feel that thrill comes to you.

And that thrill is perhaps what I'm looking for.You know, there's a certain cathartic thrill that one feels.

Agreed.And when you put that in characters, like this Zizou feeling is there.

Like, I'm thinking of Geet, Geet Dhillon, and she's in Jab We Met.And she says that she's running to Anshuman.So sometimes, like, I remember that while we were doing that scene where she comes and says, I'm running.So that whole I was telling her about all the plans and all the things that are in her mind.So for the character of Geet, those are the things that she had the Zizou for.There will be a crockery in which there will be red -colored flowers, and I will make such a tea and we will sit together and drink it.

This is the image that is going on.This is Zizu's fantasy world.This is a fantasy world.Or Aaliyah's character, Veera's character, that we'll have a house and you make food.is like a impossible fantasy.So maybe these are like all these fantasy girls.

And what is Ranbir chasing in Rockstar?

He wants to long.I don't know where all his energy is trapped.Or how many people he talks to.Because I remember, once a senior from my college said something about Rockstar.He said, man, you have spoken about our hearts.That angst that comes in Sata, Huck, Aether, Ruck.

I could feel myself.And I asked him that, Shaunty, why did you feel it?What angst do you have, man?You are from a very privileged family.You have always studied well.You have a very good job.

Your wife is so beautiful.Your kids are so cute.What is your problem?You said, yes, that's true.What angst do we have that is being expressed?these are just examples that I can give you.

But when a non -cerebral person is in longing, then he creates.So somehow, subconsciously, he is looking for pain.

That addictive feeling of pain.Yeah.

Yeah, he was addicted to a feeling of Tadab.Now this is his psychological disposition.This is his emotional disposition.He will always create the situation so that there is that Tadab in his life.Now he doesn't want this.If you ask him, he will say, you are crazy, I don't want this.

But he always creates the situation.

Yeah.He creates chaos every time.

He is the king in the chaos.He comes from within the chaos.In a way, Shiva connects to him through the chaos.But not through peace.Peace is not his cup of tea.

Cup of tea at all.If he had married her, it would have been bad.

Yes, if he had married her, it would have created a bad situation.You believe that if they had met, it would have been a disaster.

You've said it before, no?Yeah, I feel so.Yeah, I might have.Why do you feel disaster hoti dono ki?Heer ki wajah se ki Jordan ki wajah se?

I think wo hota Jordan ki wajah se.

Ki dono sode tooteve character the.Aur apni life mein uncomfortable.

Haan aur wo magar Heer bahut zyada sensitive thi.Heer ko toh pehle hi samajh mein aagaya tha.Toh Jordanfeel there's that obsession?Yeah.And he would have told her the truth.

He would have said, I'm not interested in you anymore.

So that would have been a bigger tragedy than every tragedy that we've seen in Rockstar.That would have been...Heartbreaking.Heartbreaking.It's good that it didn't end like that.Thank God.

It was left in our imagination.Because if we had run away together, we would have met in the end.And then if this was the plan.

Yeah.

Disaster.And it's true.You know, it's a psychology.Everybody is addicted to something.It's either guilt, superiority, inferiority, obsession.Everybody creates that.

People are lucky to turn their work into an obsession or addiction.Yeah.

Yeah.Which one is your favorite?It was also a bit crazy though.So it's not something that any one of us would like to repeat either.It was crazy.And we didn't know why we were getting so emotional.

Losing weight, losing hair, that was the situation.By the end of the movie?Yes, I had lost some 7 to 10 kilos in the shooting of the film.Why?I don't know.I ate a lot too.

But I just lost that weight and became very thin and dark.

Explain, if you have to explain, what was the difference between that movie and the rest?

In that movie, we were hitting upon something which was speaking to us in a subconscious way.It felt like there are more things than we know in this world or within us.Okay.And more things we know, which we read in books.But when you experience it firsthand, then it hits you different.And it's not like there was some magic happening.

But I think the magic was just in the churning that all of us somehow went through.And it was all related to the film shoot.So it was a very unified feeling.

Was there a specific moment?

And that is close to... that's in Himachal.So we were shooting there, and a lot of people had come.A lot of young people had come.A lot of people from the Tibetan community had come.Okay.So they are obviously Indians, and they were born here, but they are from the land of Tibet.

And because it was a monastery, a lot of people were from there.And we were doing the set, and I told Anil Mehta, who was the cinematographer, and Ranbir that we are taking such a small portion of the song.I'm running it from the start, but you just have to take this portion.And the action is done, and then they started.At that time, we used to shoot in film.Film is expensive.

Film's process was expensive.So we were very conscious that we shouldn't spend too much.But believe me, no matter how many times, not just that day, but for many days, no matter how many times that song started, and we started taking it, we didn't cut it.That whole song would play.The audience also used to sing in the same way.And they thought it was a live concert.

And this is a guy named Jordan.They believe him.And they used to get so emotional.I remember, we kept shooting and shooting.We started in the morning.It was evening.

It was getting dark.No one ate.I mean, the 500 people who were standing in the audience, they didn't eat either.So this is what I'm saying.It used to be crazy.And then once I realized that, man, this is a lot of money.

So I cut it.Cut, cut.I cut it.What did you brief?I have an exact moment.Have we started?

No, this is from Hawa Hawa.

Oh, you know what this is from?This is from Aur Ho.

That's my favorite song, by the way, from the movie.What were you trying to explain him here?

I was right now as actually I was setting the mic to myself to say that like if I'm singing, Now, if the mic is below me, right?Now the gesture becomes this.So this is a feel.If I pick up the mic like this, and I'm speaking like this, then this is my body language.So I was thinking that the way he was singing, I think it was that I got entangled in a desire.So I was thinking at what height would his feel be good.

So that's why I was working on the other mic.Then I thought, let me adjust it to myself and then I'll do it.Then I'll actually work on it.Nice.

Explain.Like you just said, Sada Haq became that.Everyone was into it.They were immersed into it, right?What was your brief?Let's imagine that I'm Ranbir and then you're telling me for the first time that this is a song and we have to shoot it.

How did you explain that?Because of which it was achieved, that zone was achieved.

Then I used to tell him that when I was briefing him, I didn't tell him like things that will lead him to think that this is how you are, your sister, your brother, your situation.It's more in the head.I was trying to bring it to.Have you ever thought that the beggars who sit there, at that time, when someone, you know, whatever, The brief was not that.The brief was something completely different.It says, this is what's going on in your mind when you're playing.

And obviously, it was more towards something that can enrage him.I used to tell him that it was either from the character's life or from someone else's life.So Ranbir has that empathy that he can understand and feel the other person.He just has to feel the other person.And at that time, if he was singing and the music was coming from that direction, he would get enraged.Once particularly, actually the first day when we shot that song, we were in a church.

We were shooting in Bombay, and there was a music that Orianti had played.It's a guitar piece.So when he was playing that guitar piece, I had to take that take.So I said that when you go for the take, for a moment, you keep playing the music, be with the music, but fly out of the music at some point.Fly out of the music and just scream.Just start screaming and playing.

Just start screaming and playing.And we won't keep this in the picture.But let's do this.Let it all, all of what we have discussed and all of what you've seen, let it all come out now at this time.And don't be, actually leave this space.So he said, okay.

And we played the song fast.And when he did that, No one knew.So I just said, whatever he does, cut it until I tell you not to cut it.Don't think it's wrong.So he kept doing it, kept doing it, kept doing it.And after that, when it was over, that shot, there is a place where he goes berserk.

He just loses it, right?This is the spot.I didn't even know what was going on inside me.Before that, we discussed everything.Nobody really knew what was happening.Neither my assistant, neither did I, before telling him.

No one was ready.So, what happened, everyone captured it.After that, it was over.I said cut.It was over.So, I remember, I was looking at Ranveer, of course.

And he was on stage.When it was over, where he was, his face, he raised his face and looked at me like this.Where am I?

You know, that was his reaction.

I mean, really, he lost that opportunity to leave.So, the whole unit saw this.Everyone felt something.I don't know what they felt.There was nothing logical about it.If we have been wronged, we will struggle against it.

Or if it's good, let's celebrate.I don't know, it spoke differently to different people, but in a very personal way.Neither could this be explained to anybody.I'm talking to you, you seem sensitive to me.You can feel it.But we were in that kind of a zone in Rockstar.

True.And it's visible.I think it's visible.And it's not a perfect film.There are a lot of problems.But I think there are certain things that we touched and we didn't even know where it's coming from.

Why do you say it's not a perfect film?

What's the problem?

There are a lot of mistakes.

Give me one mistake that you know that this mistake could have been right.

I often quote that this is a place, in the second half, where the girl is sick and India has come.And Jordan goes to meet her.And first, it's very interesting that he says, I won't go.You look very hot.

He says, no.

But then later on, when he achieves, when even the parents and everybody says, I feel nothing when I watch it or think about it.That is a problem.Why?What's the hole?What do you think?I don't feel them.

I don't feel what are they doing.There are some scenes, there is some dialogue there that sounds like a guitar.It's clever writing.It's not, I don't feel anything while writing.I didn't feel and I didn't know how to deal with it.

This is when, like this is after when she comes home, when she comes to India and after that scene comes that this is our world.Is that the time?Before that.Before that, okay.

Before that, there's a zone where he's walking with her.It's a small area.He's walking in the garden, or they're lying somewhere.When people's aggression increases towards him, when the crowd comes and asks, who is she?Is she someone else's wife?And things like that, then he loses his mind.

When he loses his mind, the film is fine.And then, But when there was nothing before it, in a small place, and I don't know whether how many people would have felt that point, but being the writer and the storyteller, I know that there was nothing there for me to say.

But the film picks up again after that scene.

As soon as the tension came, as soon as he felt that she is going to die and she is going to die because of me, then you see music comes and then the glory is there.As a writer, do you ever feel that this film is perfect?It happens sometimes, in the shot.But it never happens that it's perfect.Close to perfect, any shot that you're proud of.No, there are things that I'm happy about.

There are things that I'm proud about.Nothing is perfect.Close to perfect.I can give you a few examples that are coming to mind right now.When I see how, at the end of Highway, Veera is talking and saying to everybody, that I'm not sensible, I don't want to be sensible.And I'm bad, I'm ill -mannered, but I'm not one of you.

The way she has done it, the way that shot happened.When she came recently, it was a hair -raising experience.I saw it somewhere, the way she's talking and there is a scream before that.Unbearable.Like that is the moment of, like you feel, everybody felt.So I feel that's good.

Apart from that, there's another shot where she's talking to the mountains.It's very genuine, very genuine.We all do this, we often talk to ourselves.Or Jordan, how Ranbir is in variousparts of the film, how I think...So Tara is trying to hold Ved and Ved is saying...

We all are in such a situation when we ourselves get so irritated that, no, no, you love someone else.I am a failure.And he is doing it in a very passive aggressive nature.And she knows and she wants to hold him.And then there is a shot where they are on the table together, you know, and she's looking at him and he also steals a moment to look at her.Because she is there from within.

that he wants somehow for her to be able to reach him.I like that look when he looks at her.And then there are many things that are also cinematic, where the background, the foreground, the light, the sound, the performance, the costume, everything becomes one.So you feel good about it.When did this happen?Lights, performance, foreground, background.

Cinematically, it was the perfect shot.Well, because I'm editing my film these days and it's going to release.There is a shot in that, when they are climbing on a steam engine.I will come back.I will come back.So in that, these people, the whole family, and then as they are climbing

they are putting their old grandfather, other people are climbing.As they are climbing, the train moves.And there is panic, you know.But they are also climbing it.And then what we have done, we have managed to take a good shot, where we come back and we come to this giant wheel of the locomotive.which is longer than me.

And it starts spinning in the foreground of the frame.So you're watching it, and it feels really good.So I feel very nice when I think about that.

Which one will you call the worst shot of your life?Or the worst movie?

When it's being released, I find all the movies to be the worst.Although, emotionally, I'm most attached to them.Um, worst movie toh nahi hai yaar.Yeh toh nahi bol sakte.Jo nahi chali.

Hmm.Jo nahi chali usme kiska bura laga sabse hai toh jo nahi chali?

Bura, bura apni liye nahi lagta.Bura, doosron ke liye lagta hai.Ki arrey yaar, isne socha tha ki aise kuch hoga.Uska shayad nahi hua.Aur wo bhi baad mein lagta hai.But I feel, film aise bhi cheez hai ki aapne jo dala na, wo aapko de deti hai film.

So...The film, Jab Harry Met Sejal, didn't do well.And Love Aaj Kal 2 didn't do well.People didn't like it either.Some people liked it a lot, but most people didn't like it.

But Love Aaj Kal 2 usually, if you go on Reddit and critics, they call it the worst film ever.Yeah.When you read that essay.I don't read it.But it comes to you.

It does come to me.It does come to you.not resistant to it at all.

I take it at face value, Raj.

How do you feel?I feel that I feel bad.I feel bad.But then the fact is that I realized that the things that have made me feel bad, I'm old enough to know they have been very beneficial for me also.I'm more and more, as my age is increasing, I'm starting to appreciate the truth more.Whether it's good or bad.

Whether it's pleasant or unpleasant.And you learn from everything.And you don't just learn from good things.And I feel that...I feel that...My idols, the filmmakers, artists, singers, musicians, they have done worse than this.

And they are my idols.So sometimes what happens is that you don't play safe.It's important to move forward while doing a lot of things, because you learn different things to be able to make your masterpiece.True.And I feel that, like Harry Met Sejal, there was a time when Tamasha was released.A year after Tamasha, people made such a club that this is a very intellectual film and only we can be its members.

No one has permission to even understand this film.To jo nahi samajhta hai tamasha ko, wo beoqoof hai.Usko judge karo.Aur kuch log jo tamasha ko samajhte hain, wo aapas mein ek bada snooty sa club bana karke baithe hain.Aisa mujhe lagta tha.Aur mujhe laga ki, agar main inki umar ka hota hai, ya ek audience hota hai, to main shayad

never have been in this club, the Tamasha Club.

You wouldn't have been in the Snooty Club.

In the Snooty Club, I mean, I never thought of myself as that type of intellectual, nor did anyone else.But I thought, no, no, at least I shouldn't take myself seriously.The mistake I made was that I thought that I shouldn't take people seriously.I thought that if I make another film in which nothing serious happens, that image should break.A serious image should break.Or a good image should break.

And it broke, unfortunately.I thought that when this movie will be released, when Harry Met Sejal, then people will think that yes, this movie is also there, although it is light, it is easy, all its members are there.But they were so different that I made that film and it didn't even work.And in that film, all the scenes were perfect.In that film, there was the world's biggest star, everything was good.The song was also very good.

Even after everything was good, that film didn't go as well as people expected.And I felt that...This is what it means to be broken.So, what happens in that is that when you...At that time, not at that time, but before that, I believe in Kabir a lot, Kabir ji.So, there is a prayer of Kabir ji that, Bhala hua mori matki phooti, main paniya bharan se chooti, more sar se tali bhala.

More sar se tali bhala.So, what happened, I thought, okay.Now I have made a bad film.I have become a little easy.Incomplete.So if there is a person who is a womanizer, who has a very bad reputation, who is a very bad person, who sees women in a wrong way, and he himself knows that I will leave whatever I am, I cannot control.

There is such a person, we hear about such people, such people, we feel that this is it, this is it, people say, women judge or say, or like, I don't know.It's a story of such a person.It's difficult to have a more cinematic, dramatic character than this.But we couldn't get into it.This will remain.Why did he become like that?

What was inside him?I didn't go into all these things because I was trying to make a satyahi film.

But this has become philosophical.How do you deal with it?Tell me, what do you feel when you have a flop?How do you feel the next morning?

Like all other sorrows, it doesn't come together.It comes slowly.It comes like waves.I also have a psychological defect.I've known since childhood that I don't feel happiness or sadness directly at that time.I feel it in some other way.

I remember my mother always used to say, aren't you happy?This is a matter of being happy.I said, no, no, I am happy, I am happy.Why doesn't it seem like you are happy?So I remember my own mother saying, But why do you not think that it should work for me?

Because you said that I don't feel bad for myself, I feel bad for others.

Why?Because my calculations have always been unsuccessful.And whatever I wanted for myself, when it didn't happen that way, that's when it was good.I mean, otherwise, a boy from Jamshedpur doesn't deserve to sit here in front of you as a film director.It is only a series of accidents that have brought me here.Of course, there must be something internal, that I came this way.

But that path was never in front of me step by step.So, I don't think what will happen to me or like that.Whoever has taken care of me till now, he will also take care of me in the future.And since the beginning you are like this?

I think so.

That this personality or this philosophy became late.No, I think I've been like this.I've made every mistake that I wanted no one to make.Like, I've never worried about how much I'm earning, where I'm getting my money from.But God made it so that I never had to sleep hungry.I made every mistake.

Every immature, not even immature, every illogical decision.I made every non -commercial decision.Give me one non -commercial stupid decision.This is stupid.It's arrogant.

It's your money.You should get it.

My money.My money.They have held it illegally.They don't have a case to hold.But I didn't want to ask for it.Not from you.

Because you are my friend.And money is a very small thing.What is the second thing, sir?Because of money, I have seen people being very ugly.

There's one incident from your life.You've said, my class nine.And that failure has stayed with me forever.What was it about that failure that has stayed with you till now?

After that failure, I realized why it is that I sit in the classroom all day and say, yes miss, yes miss, I understand, ma 'am.But nothing gets into my head.I am closed.My mind is closed.I am nodding.I would have said yes, yes.

But there was a no -no inside.I couldn't understand anything.My mind was somewhere else.I was daydreaming.I was thinking about something else.What is it that she is saying that I can't understand?

Let me try to understand.This happened suddenly.What is written in this book that I won't be able to understand?This maths that frightens me.Later, he became my best friend.I liked Maths and Physics the most.

When I started opening my mind...Opening my mind is what happened.Opening...And all that happened because of shyness.Because I'm very shy.I still try not to show it, but that's my default shyness.

So...failing, going back to school.Embarrassment.Oh my God.I used to go to the gate and come back.I couldn't go till Thursday.

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday.Wednesday, Thursday.Because I didn't want to go for the whole week.So I went on Friday.And I met another boy.He had also failed.

And he was Gangu.He didn't care.Hitesh Patnaik was his name.I said, I wanted protection, you know.And then the embarrassment, all my batchmates have become seniors now.In their eyes, in their eyes, in their faces.

Even if there was no emotion, I was seeing that emotion.My classmates, in their faces, that he has failed.And failing in school is a very big thing.It's a moral judgment.that you are defective, you are corrupt, you are bad.The way you are bad in studies, your character will also be bad.

You have become bad.And in the report card, with Imtiaz Ali, there was an R written in a red bracket.Repeat.Repeating student.So that was my report card for a year.But because of her shyness, I became open to her.

What is she saying?What is the teacher teaching?What is written in the physics book?Let me see.What is it?It's very simple.

There is nothing like that.I understood it.When I started understanding, my grades increased so dramatically that people had never seen a case where a student who was failing did so well.The same report card in which R was written in red had amazing marks then.

And what was about that failure again?I'm going there.You quoted that.But you've never quoted success.

Isn't that funny?That is true.Because that has remained with me forever.Because the ability to accept many failures was easy.So if this has also happened, if this film has not run, then maybe I can do something more positive and become better.This is also possible.

If you really ask me what were your formative things in your life, then often it will be failures.I don't remember the successes.Success is also important.But success can also be small.Winning a small basketball match.Blue versus yellow, winning the match.

Maybe this will be a big thing for me.It will be a big success, which I am carrying.Success is also important.But failure is absolutely essential.True.Didn't you learn anything from success?

I have learned from success.can give you modesty.Success can make you more accepting.Failure can make you bitter.Failure can make you angry.So failure in itself is not enough.

Have you noticed in this, it's a personal thing and I'm asking you, I've gone When I was a kid, I was also a failure type kid.And then later in my life, a little bit of praise or success came much later in life.Like I think first year in college, I must have been praised for the first time.At home too.In everything else, I was an average, almost non -existing kid.That nothing will happen with this, it's future type, right?

And when you're that, that you fail or you don't do much, And later when you taste one or two success, right?You develop a very different type of complex in your head.And it's a mix.Like it's not...And you constantly live with this inferiority, superiority, and you don't know which day what will come.in.

I am getting the courage to own up to it.That's the only way it will disappear.But that was not always the case.When I used to feel inferior, I would also try to show to be superior.If I have a fear within me, then I try to express it even more.So all this used to happen.

I became very arrogant in the middle.When this got better, I became very arrogant in everything.Because I was so insecure from within.Not insecure from within, but inferior.I was not insecure.But I can relate completely to you, that you have to feel the smallest in the room and the largest in the room somehow.

But I used to try to show off that I am a lot.But then...What did you do?How would you show your arrogance?Appearing like a dandy, wearing clothes, Not smiling, not laughing at your joke.Just like I'm too sexy for this party kind of an attitude.

When was one moment, give me one moment when you felt truly arrogant?

Just to show that I'm too sexy for this party.This is when I was in the second year of college, actually.Aur yeh jo play hai na, yeh ek bada accha play tha, iska naam hai, Plus two.OK.And this class of 11th and 12th is called plus two.OK.

So what was the difference in this?

There were a lot of things that happened in my plus two.And there was that arrogance that explodes on stage.I think this I must have built up my arrogance while doing these things.Because of the stage?Yes, because I made a play called Plus Two, in which I basically showcased my school time arrogance.usko mene basically showcase kar liya.

Usme bahut saare characters the, usme bahut saare issues hote hain, ek central plot hain.Basically ye jo hai na ek, this is like a clash between the school students and the authorities in a way.So, wo sab usse matlab vyakt ho gaya, you know, I think.So, at that time, I was coming out of arrogance.Because I had crossed school and I was already in college.What did you show in this film which was a visual depiction of arrogance?

In this, there is a school time affair between two people.And the people of the school create a big scene about it.The management authorities and so on.But the student community says, what's the big deal if they have said a few good things to each other?What's your problem in this?So they get together with them.

This was the story of this thing.So I think that arrogance was expressing itself somehow.

There's one scene where it's not arrogance, actually, but with confidence.One time when Ved breaks down in front of his father.This is when he finally comes out of that identity that all my life, I was trying to be the way my dad wanted me to be.And I was stuck between the two of them.And he breaks down.And that's the most, it's a very touching scene for a lot of people.

And that's when his confidence, arrogance, or whatever you call it, breaks down.And the new Ved is born in somehow.He feels relieved.Has this happened in your life?An incident with your father where you finally relieved and be like, I want to be what I want to be.

Actually, my father was very different from Ved's father.Okay.And Ved's father came into existence only because I used to think that what would be the case if my father was not like this.I am that student who, despite being a good student, after scoring very high in physics, chemistry and maths, said that I will not become an engineer.I want to do English literature.And my father agreed.

So Ved and his circumstance has come into my mind only because If my father had turned out the other way, then what would have happened?So my discussions with my father and my contradictions with him are more intellect, society, that kind of intellect discussions.On a personal level, we are in agreement.Nice.Yeah.

Do you see now, because you write about love, you have experienced love.I hope so, yeah.Still trying, still greedy for it.And you've written love for very, very different generations.Because now the Gen Z is there.What do you think, like what does Gen Z, actually, what does Gen Z think is wrong about love?

they get wrong?

Gen Z is getting the same thing wrong which anybody in their age, in any generation has got wrong.They look at the exterior and gradually they realize that it is the interior.And gradually they realize that the quality of love doesn't exist in the person that is the object of your love, but inside you.Have you seen that a certain person, every time that he says he's in love or she says she's in love, is in love in the same way?Why is that the case?It must be that there is something in that person's heart that can only express itself in a certain way and wants to express itself.

A while ago we talked about predisposition.This is also a requirement.This is also a Zizu.To be in love.To do something.And there are some people who want to do a lot.

There are some people who want someone to do a lot for them.There are different types of people.But those who want to do something for others, they will always want to do it in every relationship.They don't change their stripes.

But have you heard this?No, I feel it's not a new feeling.

I feel that the present generation is much more truthful and can say very easily a lot of things, which the previous generations were little not so comfortable talking about.I feel that the present generation is only as fragile as the previous generations was, but they are just more honest, as I said.The other thing is that I feel the present generation is much more exposed to modes of communication and that's why they are expressing themselves much more.I think it's not only the generation, Raj.I feel that it is the whole world.His situation is perhaps worse than a 20 -year -old boy.

So I don't think it's a generational thing.I think it is the advent of humanity through all the gadgets that have happened now.So I feel that the present generation will get it also faster.The present generationsense of value doesn't have hypocrisy.They don't keep it in their hearts.

They keep it in their hearts and say, I will suffer internally, but I am superior to you because I am suffering more.This is not stupidity.Younger generation.This is what we have to learn from them.Immoral superiority.Yes, superiority of force.

There is a saying that I am suffering.

I compromised a lot, I adjusted a lot, I suffered a lot in life.

You haven't done any favor to anyone.Don't do this.So you feel a missing feeling in everyone.There is a missing feeling in everyone.And I would say, in the words of Irshad Kamil, everything is completed and finished.The half is alive.

There is a book called Man's Search for Meaning.Yes, yes.Have you read it?It's a very painful book.It's very painful.But the big thing about it is that in the concentration camp, those prisoners survive who had some incompleteness, who had brought some incomplete things.

In a strange sort of a way, the film I'm making, I'll be back, in that too, is that something is incomplete and it is not letting it end.And we are trying to understand what that thing is.

So is it a perpetual feeling of love or a 60 year love?that someone who suffers a lot, even if it is in a concentration camp, that he has lived a very privileged life, this feeling is constant in everyone.

This is there.And it is always there in the books.You understand these things at different times.Other people have also felt it.Rabindranath Tagore has written it.Rumi has written it.

Shakespeare has written it.Ghalib has written it.Kabir has written it.All these people.of a constant yearning that a man will have for something.That is just a vehicle for his yearning for the Almighty, perhaps.

Param purakh ka daasa, vikhan aayo jagat tamasa.And he used to say, bring me back.I'm suffering here.Because this is a punishment for me. I'm with them.I mean, what is that?I'm with them.

It's not like I'm a human being who is God.I don't know what that is.That's what the big people say inside.That's what Kabir says.Where are you looking for a chance?So I feel that People are, there is an incompleteness, as long as you're in this world, is what Ghalib has said.

Shama har rang mein jalti hai seher hone tak.There is no permanent cure for Gham -e -Hasti.Tagore says it in all his poems, this yearning.And Rumi says it in all his poems.One cannot emulate it.One cannot emulate it.

There's a poem that I'd read many, many long years back called The Pulley.In it, it was said that when God created man, he kept everything, kept everything, everything became perfect.When it became perfect, then I don't know why he thought, let's not leave it perfect, let's take out one thing and take out satisfaction.So sometimes one feels it inside themselves.But it can manifest to different things.

Talking about your films, your protagonist, your actor, Actor -actress, they meet at the wrong time.Something wrong is happening in their life.You meet Geeta Aditya when she is already married.You meet Ved Tara when she is already married.Or I mean engagement, whatever they are dating.Then you meet Jordan at the same time, when she is already married to Heer.

Why?Why always love is with the one who is already gone?Or it's probably the wrong time.

Because that's when some change is necessary.That is when some drama is necessary.Otherwise...What do you mean?I mean, if two people get together and they don't have an issue, then there's no story.There's nothing interesting.

And why it is not interesting is that there is no difference that comes in their lives.If I miss it, then I'll have to stretch myself.In that stretch, I'll become taller or different.So I feel that just as I said that failure was necessary for real success, I feel that changing, a change is necessary.And sometimes you are compelled to change.Sometimes in that being compelled to change is turning towards what you love.

But other Bollywood movies are not like that.

Other movies are also very simple.Pyaar Mein Hai, Do Log Apni, Duniya Mein Chal Raha Hai, Mir Liye Pyaar Karte Ho Gaya.It's not somebody's already in love and you're actually getting them.

But aap dekhlo jitni bhi humari love stories hoti hain na, jo folk love stories hoti hain.Indian.The woman is always married to someone else.Heer is somebody else's wife.Laila is somebody else's wife.Soni is somebody else's wife.

Everybody is married to other people.Why do you think?I feel that if the path is simple, I don't have to change.If the path is not simple, then I challenge society.But I'm not feeling a sense of guilt when I'm looking at her, when I'm thinking of her.Then what does it mean?

Does it mean that there is piousness that I have achieved in my love?Does that mean that I will now challenge the norms of society.Challenging the norms of society will give me heartbeat, will give me the flight, will give me change, will make me suffer, but will also make me achieve something that I couldn't have achieved earlier.That is when the river moves inside you.That is when the change happens.And I feel that if I'm already getting something very easily, then I'm not straining myself, then I'm not growing for it.

And everyone writes about it.Everyone writes about it.

One is there is change, like you want to bring the change and it happens and then I stretch myself.

Why do all the iconic people write about it?Because they're all trying to do the same.Because they're all trying to jump just that little bit up so that their nostril gets out of the level of water.Because when I stretch and catch something, the sense of achievement is much more.When I have it in my hand, then it has lost its significance.

I have a question on this.Never say goodbye.That didn't work because people said it's cheating.and it's morally wrong.And a lot of people created hate around it in a way.Rockstar is also cheating.

People cheer for it to happen.Like there's a point in the movie when he's in Prague and when she comes out and hugs him.People cheer.People cheer that this is what we want.Why is the cheating of a movie morally incorrect versus people cheer for it?

It must be because of the way the story is expressed.The point of view of the story is such that it is truthful.The point of view of the story is between Heer and Jordan and it is truthful.There is a man who realizes, yaar mujhe guilt kyu nahi feel ho raha hai?

Mujhe to guilty feel hona chahiye na, magar ho kyu nahi ho raha hai?

Something people could associate with, something that we've all kind of at some point felt, or at least, forget about us.So we feel a certain strength, we see a certain truth.And in the depiction of it, there is no arrogance, there is no cheating.I think people recognize truth here.I don't remember to

It's just madness and obsession.justifies it even more.

It is important to break down the boundaries, especially for young people.Because even if you lose, you will understand that what they are saying is right.But if I do it, I will have confidence.I don't think you should just listen to what others say.And that's why the society changes.A few days ago, we used to think that samleng relationship is wrong.

We used to think it's a sin.We used to think it's illegal.Forget about the other things.Today, we don't think it's illegal.Today, it's legal.Things change.

They will change only when you cross their boundaries.So, I don't think...People should always be respectful, I feel.People can be polite while even challenging a law.You know, people can be graceful.You can have dissent which is polite.

and consent, which is impolite.But I'm all in the favor of pushing the boundaries, but in a respectful manner.

I don't know a polite way to push the boundary.

Poetry is a polite way of pushing the boundary.is to say, in a way, that I don't believe in all the norms of society.The moral judgments.But it is also true that we are in this world.But there is a humanity beyond the laws of this world.We can be together there.

So it's actually a voice of dissent in a certain way.

that person becomes complete with love or after falling in love.Now the concept is that first you should be complete, then only you go in a relationship.Two incomplete people can't come together and make their journey, right?It's like first you need to be prepared and be complete and do it.What do you think is better?Fall in love and then through that person you should discover yourself and complete yourself.

I feel the same way.

former is better.You fall in love and then you learn and you learn with the person and then both of you then stabilize.Why I'm saying this is that the term falling in love means falling.It means breaking.You will break again.Kabhi aisi situation mein aap nahi aap aayenge, ya koi bhi nahi aap aata hai ki jab wo itna shaktimaan ho gaya hai ki ab wo kabhi nahi tootega.

Agar wo aisa ban gaya hai toh phir wo he'll not truly be open to love either.So I feel that, go for it.Go for it.Break.Aisi kya khaas baat hai aap mein?Kyu nahi tarpenge aap?

Aapko bhi takleef honi chahiye.Maidaan mein aayiye.Kheliye, khel toh kheliye.Usme maza bohot aayega haan.Kichar lagegi paon mein.You can get hurt, you can fall, but without that, there is no fun in playing.

Then why is this body, body, mind, heart given by God?If there is a heart, then someone should find an excuse to beat.So I feel that one should play the game.I think one should enter and one should always go with their hearts.And even if you're scared, because sitting on the sidelines is no fun.And there is very little growth or progress that can happen just by being in the stadium and watching the game.

But how do you write love for today's generation?In a generation where there's Nine words.Situationships, you know, sliding into DMs and starting and then breadcrumbing and I don't know, sunset clause.

Breadcrumbing, I love.

Breadcrumbing.There's a sunset clause now.

What's that?

It's like you give yourself time.If you get someone according to your expectations, then it's fine.Otherwise, you're done.The best alternative I'll just like it's a sunset clause.

You know, the smartness that your generation has shown is that they have given phrases to these feelings that always existed in humanity.People used to say, I'm giving this much time.If it doesn't work, then I won't try for it anymore.But because he was forced by his heart, he kept giving extensions to himself.So I'm sure that this Sunset Clause will also have extensions.

Of course.

Breadcrumbing.Breadcrumbing.Keep it.Don't let this boy go completely.Keep it somewhere in yourself.Let me talk to her on the phone today.

Girls used to do this a lot.So I think it all existed.But these phrases have come in.And now people are now, it's easier for them to tabulate all this.But do you change the way you write love for this generation?

No.

I'm trying to, every film that I do or every story that I'm telling is basically a process of discovering something new for myself.Okay.And emotionally,And it is about the younger generation usually.Somehow.And it's through them that I'm trying to discover something for myself, which is what compelled me to write that story in the first place.

I can change these things in it.It's possible that I pick up this bread -crumbing phrase from you and put it there.Or put the sunset clause there.These words will be different and funny and interesting.But I feel that that will not be... that's just superficial, you know.But it's not as though I'm writing differently for a different generation.

Secondly, as I said, there are many things that are applicable to everyone in the world.It's applicable to me, it's applicable to you, because we are living together on this earth at this time.It's true that at your age, your activities might be a little different, and mine might be a little different.But I'm also using my experience of living in this world to write younger romances for today's date.

In almost every film, the protagonist doesn't go back home.Why doesn't he go?Keith doesn't go.Jordan doesn't go.Harry can't go back to Punjab.Almost no one can go.

I'll come back.Sounds like I've gone away from home or I've gone away from you.I'll come back.Like I'll come back for you.

So every character has this.Why?They all have a desire to win.They all have a desire.

Like Laila Majnu doesn't have this.She doesn't go.

But I think like Geet runs away, but then later on when she's suffering silently, she wants to go back to her comfort, but she can't because she's embarrassed.It's the same for everyone.

It's the same for everyone.Like, the angle of the house is lost.Either it's a complicated relationship or it's lost.No one gets tired of losing and doesn't go home.

Or they don't even go home after winning.They don't even go home after winning.I think that's a constant feature in many stories, many of my stories also.People don't go home, but they want to go.Like that song, Khaali Hai Jo Tere Bina, Main Wo Ghar Hoon Tera.So, I think Mai Wapas Aamga is also about something which is a pledge, but it's also a desire that is incomplete, that something remains to be done.

This is what I meant earlier, that incomplete is incomplete.And that is this whole thing of wanting to return for something.So, sometimes these very emotional, personal desires and resolves don't end in life.You achieve big things.But the small things, the emotional things inside you, they stay with you all your life and don't let you go even in the end, till you fulfill them.

It's an incomplete method.

The incompleteness in this case, it's also symbolic to a very larger problem.This is a personal relationship.It's a personal story, but it's also the story of a very big disaster where a lot of people had to leave home.So, it's a very personal story.But in this personal story, you can see its echoes.In today's world, the biggest story is migration.

In the last 200 years.I mean, especially in Bombay, you see in your office, you ask people, where was your grandfather?Where was your grandfather?Where was your grandfather?They're all, we're all from different places.We've all traveled.

Nobody leaves their home willingly.So I think migration is the biggest story of our couple of centuries at least.It's like a small flower growing in the footpath, you know.But this story is happening in the time of migration.So I think it is very symbolic to a lot of people who want to return.A lot of people whose homes are destroyed, they want to return, but they can't.

War is going on in this world right now.So many cruelties are being committed here and there, everywhere.So many people are losing their homes, their beloved people.And they're leaving with this promise.I will come back.In India also, this has happened in 1947.

So this is a story about that time, about one, about two people who are young, two people in love.It's a promise to come back.

But is there a version of you who Like maybe a home that you yourself lost somewhere.

I am most associated with my home where I was in very early childhood, which is in Jamshedpur.That house is still there.It's a company quarter.It didn't belong to us.It was actually in my Nana's name.So I've grown up over there in Flamel Road in Jamshedpur.

And I have a lot of association with that house.Whenever I think of a house, it's the same house.It was a rented house.It was very small in a few years.But I'm always thinking of that home as my home.And I know I can't go back.

Because how can I go and live there again?And even if I go back, will I fit into that house?I don't know.Probably not.But there's something.Yeah.

That's the house in my mind.That's my home.And not wanting to go home is also the desire to be who you were at that time.To be that person, that boy who I've lost, I'll never be.

revolve around women.And the women character gets that guy in the end.But the guy finds himself.Like she finds him and he finds himself in almost every movie.

Oh, nice.It's a good analysis.

Isn't it like that?

Maybe.If you're saying then it must be.

I'm asking you as a storyteller, is there a choice that this was a blind spot?No, no.

It's not a choice.It's just how And I've thought about it, though.I've thought about it.I feel that women are much more sorted than men are.By the time they are in their 20s, definitely.Even earlier, I think.

I think women are more sorted.They are smarter, more intelligent, more sorted.They are smart, I think.They are fun.A man is a bit stupid.I think.

It takes a little time.

He needs some manpower to explain himself.

It's like he becomes his guide.Often it happens.Not always, but often in my stories too.aisa hota hai ki wo, like he can understand before Jordan and things like that.But this is how I found women in my life also.I think my mum, my cousin sisters, my aunts and yeh log auratein badi smart lagi dikhi hai mujhe apni zindagi mein.

So the women in my films are also perhaps smarter.And it's not purposely done?It's not purposely done, no.

It's just a pattern which is..

.Yeah, it's like I'm not thinking of my previous films.I'm hardly even thinking of not making films like my previous films.But I'm just following in my mind a certain character that I'm seeing.Here's my last question, which is led into two questions.Very complicated, but I don't know why I kept it for last.

How do you write a screenplay?What's your process?

So my process is that it catches on in my mind like an infection.What do you mean?A thought, a thought or an image comes to my mind.It comes after seeing something, and then it processes itself inside like an infection, which I don't take in on purpose.I don't want to think about it and do something about it.But because of my own interest, the story keeps being made within me.

And then there comes a time when I start sharing it with people.That I start discussing that fledgling story with every person.discuss it.Like Gulzar sahab's lyric, that, by taking the names of others, lying to friends, you talk about me.So, in the same way, I try to tell that story to someone else.If I'm going by auto, I tell it to the auto rickshaw driver.

I tell that story to anyone.Because I am now enjoying that thought in my mind.It then just starts developing.develops on its own.It's like that.It just goes on.

For a person who is a confirmed daydreamer like me, it just keeps humoring me.It keeps me company.It keeps me entertained inside my mind.And it keeps forming itself more and more.Till there comes a time where I feel that I should write it down.

But is there a question or one or two questions you ask yourself before you write that this will be the final screenplay in this way?

No.I try to just write it the way it comes.But how do you explain it?As it is written?There is no need to explain it because you are writing it for yourself.The first draft is only for you to read.

You write it.You write it.You feel better having written it.While writing it, a lot of things change.Because you're engaged with it.And you're engaged with it slow time, word by word.

So you're not in complete control of what you're writing.You don't sometimes know where things are coming from.So you keep writing.And this is only what I do.I don't know what you do.else does.

I write it the way it comes.Sometimes it comes with dialogue.But sometimes it happens that I don't know what happens next.So don't write what happens next.Write that, okay, when they met five years later, she was a different person.Start from, no problem.

Just write as much as whatever you feel like.It's just a mean of, it's not a professional activity for me.For me, it's more like a cathartic enjoyment, exploration kind of a thing.So that I do.But that is not the final script.Then it takes shape more and more, more and more, more and more.

Then when you ask how to explain it, then I start understanding it better and writing it in a way that can be understood while reading.The second draft is that.Second, third, fourth, fifth.There are many drafts.And then how do you choose a right person for this?This is a very instinctive decision.

Because when I'm writing, I'm imagining, I'm thinking of people, but those people don't have faces.It's incomplete.It's an imagination.You have to attach the face at one point.You have to attach it.But when you attach the face, you feel if the vibe is right.

Sometimes you think you're looking for an older person, like in the case of Alia for Highway.I thought I was looking for a mature person who understands life and that's why I want to run away from it.But when I met Alia, I realized that the soul matches her.there's a vibe match between the character and her.I can see her as the character, although she was very, very young.So I wanted to cast her.

So there is usually that vibe that matches, that there is a ghostly figure like in my mind of a Geet.But when I see Kareena, I feel that she has that.that thing inside.Because the face could be somebody, something else, but that vibe of Geet can be this person.So like that.And why Diljeet for Mai Wapas Aunga?

Because hopefully when you watch this film, this is very connected.Mai Wapas Aunga is very connected to whom?It's very connected to the land.It's very connected to the circumstance that Diljeet personally would also understand and be be completely in sync with, you know.As much as Diljit was suited to be Chamkeela, more than that, he's suited to be Nirvair Grewal in Main Wapas Aunga.It's a story very close to him.

It's a story that he can represent very easily.And there is almost a paradoxical character to that story.And there are many interesting things, like he wants to be a stand -up comedian.And it's nice to see Diljit performing in front of seven, eight people who are also not so interested in what he's performing.That was very fun, actually.We were all amazed at that spectacle.

that there are 8 -10 people in the audience.And now you see his show is going on, his aura tour is going on.Lakhs of people, thousands of people.Long live he.But yeah, very emotionally connected.One last thing, I don't know what this scene means.

Till date.And I've been trying to understand, make some logic.What are you trying to show here?

Jordan has reached a place where he can't feel anything.Because he's like that drug addict who's had higher and higher doses of Zizu.Now he needs a bigger dose.Now he needs a more dose.So to feel anything has become a problem because he feels nothing.Nothing breaks his heart.

Nothing touches him.And he is now trying to create something that will hurt him.For an artist like him, his guitar is a holy symbol.It's a holy object.He birthed it.it so that he can feel something.

He's brought himself to such an unfeeling, hard place.So he's lying in that pool of water because he wants to wake himself up also.And he's looking at this, he's staring at this burning guitar because he wants to feel the burn.He wants to punish himself.But he's not feeling it.It's not easy for him to punish himself.

This is actually in both ways the presence of the opposites, the tenderness.You feel inferior but you also feel very superior in that room.So the presence of opposite is always there in everything.You know, so I feel that I wanted to create that because there is fire and there is water.So you feel a sense of the opposites being together.

And does he die in the end?

No, he doesn't die in the end.He doesn't die till the movie gets over.No guarantee of what happens after that.But no, he's dead.And his curse is that he's alive.It would be easier.

It's an anonymous refugee who has said that if I had a choice between death and leaving my home, I would have gladly chosen death.Unfortunately, I did not have such a choice.So, that is really where I'll come back from.Thank you so much.Thank you.I had an amazing time with you.

I hope so, because I really enjoyed myself.And this was just like meeting a friend and talking.Thank you.

Raj, nice to meet you.Please have a seat, sir.How are you?

Good, good.

How are you?Very good.You're coming from here on foot?You live here, right?I live here.

Thank you, sir.Thank you for coming and doing this.Thank you for making the time and figuring out.Nice.I really like this picture somehow.

You see?

Yeah, when you're looking through the camera, when your other eye is closed, you're only looking at what's coming through the camera.So, yeah, then you...Then you are in a world which is different, where you can be anything you want.

Thank you so much.I'll be in touch.Thank you so much for watching this episode till the end.Now you know that you have to do three things.First of all, subscribe to this channel so that we can keep bringing more valuable guests.Number two, tell me in the comments what you liked in this episode and which guests you want to see in this podcast.

And do share this episode with someone who will get a chance to change something better in their life.Because a conversation can change someone's life.I'll see you next time.Until then, keep figuring out.