Imtiaz Ali is working with Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma together for the first time.
Jab Harry Met Sejal, which releases today, brings Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma together for a third time after Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Jab Tak Hai Jaan. And director Imtiaz Ali, is ready to take his audience on yet another thrilling trip of self-discovery. We already saw in the trailer how SRK aka Harry is lost in his life, and Anushka aka Sejal is on the lookout for her lost engagement ring. So why is ‘self-discovery’ such an important part of all Imtiaz Ali films? During a promotional event in Delhi, the ace director got candid with the media.
“It must be important because it’s seen very often in my films. And I think I make movies because it is fun and everything else is just an add on to that. So, when you are in a state of almost revelry inside, then you become very basic. And in that stage it is possible to figure out who you really are. So, I can see some sort of self-discovery for my characters and in some sort of way, I feel it must be happening to me,” Imtiaz explains.
Understanding the creative mind of Imtiaz, who gave us some genius works like Rockstar, Highway and Tamasha, can be a completely new subject all together. Ask Imtiaz how he moulds the picture in his imagination before translating it onto the celluloid, and he says, “I think it’s selfishness that makes it that way. It’s just a very thrilling process for me to make a movie, to imagine something, and to add up these small pieces of imaginations in my mind. I have this habit of talking stories to people whom I’m with. Then I realise I want to write it down. So, I’m already making a movie in my mind.”
A still from Jab Harry Met Sejal.
From Jordan, Geet, Veera, Meera, Ved and Viren, each of his characters have been layered and show an emotional graph. When indianexpress.com asked him how many layers of Shah Rukh and Anushka will be uncovered in Jab Harry Met Sejal, Imtiaz said, “The layers always belong to the characters rather than the actors but it is true also that actors bring their own realities to the imagination I have of the character and that’s how a final character in a film is created. Shah Rukh’s character Harinder is at a juncture where he feels he’s lost hope, lost interest in life. There’s a certain crudeness to him in terms of superficially to this character or cynicism but there is so much of himself that wants to be innocent and free. And Sejal, on the other hand, is an over confident girl who has no idea how little she knows.”
Considering Shah Rukh’s backlog of playing the stereotypical Raj or Rahul, was it a pressure on Imtiaz to try and keep Harry different from all the characters SRK has played before? “Shah Rukh used to say to me ‘If ever you have anything for me, which you think I can do, I’ll do it’. He always maintained that the character should be of his age. He was clear that he didn’t want to do a Rahul or Raj. He has not done a love story for the longest time. I feel he cannot associate with it anymore because of the experience.
Shah Rukh Khan is returning to romance after a long time.
SRK also came with his tag of the ‘King of Romance’. Imtiaz agreed to it and added, “I think he’s got the largest heart. It is not a coincidence that a tag gets associated with you for so many years. There must be some quality in that man personally and emotionally. Sometimes it’s so strange, that people closest to you are not aware of a truth in your heart. SRK’s got the largest heart, the maximum love. In one scene in the film when Harry and Sejal are going from Budapest to Prague post interval, the way he reacted, I didn’t expect anybody will have that kind of passion inside to behave like that. I realise I’m dealing with this animal, who doesn’t have a normal heart.”
Shah Rukh Khan, Imtiaz Ali and Anushka Sharma on the sets of Jab Harry Met Sejal.
Jab Harry Met Sejal also had its brush with the CBFC over the use of word ‘intercourse’. Imtiaz expressed, “Till the time censorship will be there, filmmakers will continue to quarrel over it. But we should also not forget that in several nations which are lesser liberal that ours, where there is a lot of censorship, great films are still made there. So, we should see our quality too and as filmmakers that how much that vulgar content or whatever we are showing is required in the film.”
So, why are all his love stories flawed? Because flaws are the only things that are beautiful. Flaws make you different from anybody else.” And does he have more stories to tell about self-discovery? “I hope not. Next story has nothing to do with the other stories I’ve told so far.” He signs off.
