I wanted to explore that concept rather than a conventional love story where two people don’t know each other, meet and fall in love,” Aslam told IANS. “I wanted to show what happens to two people, who have known each other for their entire life, if their relationship breaks. I found the concept more exciting than just writing run-of-the-mill love story.” The basic premise of the multi-layered plot is romance and it is through Imran Khan and Deepika Padukone that the director will tell his story on celluloid. It is scheduled for a Nov 26 release.
“It has got three different layers actually. One is a simple story about a relationship between two people and what happens when there is a problem in their relationship. “The other layers are a coming-of age story where these two characters feel claustrophobic within the family bindings as everyone wants them to get married. Then they move to Australia where they live independently,” said Aslam. After working as an assistant director to Ashutosh Gowariker in “Swades” (2004), Siddharth Anand in “Salaam Namaste” (2005) and Kunal Kohli in “Fanaa” (2006), he couldn’t stop himself from making a love story. “I wrote the story two and a half years ago. I knew that I wanted to make an urban love story. I wanted to make a movie that I could relate to… I have also worked as an assistant to directors like Kunal and Siddharth who have made films of different genres. The choice of genre came from there and I liked the concept,” said Aslam.
“It’s a very commercially viable film, but that’s not intended. I didn’t want to make a very intense film,” he added. Aslam says he doesn’t believe in penning a story keeping the lead actors in mind. “I don’t believe in writing for any particular person or any particular actor because I think that limits you in your story telling. When you write a story and if you have an actor in mind, you tend to see from that actor’s perspective whether he would be able to do that. That draws a limitation. I finished the story and only after that we started thinking who can actually fit the script,” said Aslam. Aslam says Imran portrayed the role easily as he portrayed his original self but Deepika had to push herself because personally she doesn’t believe in escaping a relationship. “Imran is not acting in the film, he is just being himself. He is a diehard romantic and believes in commitment. In real life too, he is committed for a very long time and that is what he is actually playing in the film.
“As far as Deepika goes, I like the spontaneity of an actor that she brings to her character. She is playing a person who is experimental, wants to see the world and doesn’t believe in commitment. Deepika had to do a lot more because she doesn’t believe in that philosophy in real life,” said Aslam. Talking about the genre of the film, he said: “I personally have a big problem with the genre definition. I don’t understand how films are defined on the basis of genres. There are lots of movies, which I don’t know which genre to put it in. Imran defined it as romantic, coming-of-age comedy. I think that’s the genre we are going to stick to.” He also denied that his film is a tribute to Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan. “There is no tribute to anybody. There is one shot in the movie where Imran does that ‘Main Hoon Na’ Shah Rukh move. That is it,” said Aslam.
