Imtiaz Ali says he has ‘fought with Rockstar fans’ over the film’s flaws, Diljit Dosanjh sides with them: ‘They are right to get upset’

Imtiaz Ali said that he has had arguments with Rockstar fans as they are not ready to accept the film's flaws.

New Delhi | April 11, 2024 09:51 AM IST

3 min read

Ranbir Kapoor in a still from Imtiaz Ali's Rockstar.

Director Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar opened to mixed critical reactions in 2011, but over a decade later, the musical drama has garnered a strong and vocal cult following. In a recent interview, Imtiaz, who is getting ready for the release of his next film, Amar Singh Chamkila, said that he has had fights with Rockstar fans as they are not ready to accept the film’s flaws.

Diljit Dosanjh, who is starring in Amar Singh Chamkila, was also present alongside Imtiaz in the interview hosted on Netflix India’s YouTube channel. He said that he is a huge fan of the film. Imtiaz shared, “I have a lot of critics around me. It gets me into trouble sometimes but when I get genuine feedback, it really helps. You have to process the criticism by yourself and sometimes you criticise yourself. The way your criticise yourself, no one else does it that way. I have fought with Rockstar fans. They got upset that how dare I say that there was some fault in the film. Like once, I said that it was a flawed film.”

Diljit immediately reacted in shock and asked, “What?” When Imtiaz explained that “there were a lot of things in that film that were not okay,” Diljit just shook his head and kept repeating, “No, no, no.” Imtiaz then dropped the subject and said, “This is a long discussion. People have gotten upset with me.” Diljit defended the fans, and said that they were “right to get upset” with Imtiaz. “If a poet starts sharing his thoughts behind the poetry they wrote, it would be wrong. People have their different interpretations,” Diljit said.

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In an earlier interview, Diljit had expressed his love for Rockstar, which starred Ranbir Kapoor in the lead role. Diljit said that he was moved by the protagonist’s inner pain, and forced to wonder if every successful artist needs to be tortured. “There is no pain in my life. I am an artist. First I tried (finding pain) after watching Rockstar. I was very inspired by Rockstar, it is a great film and Ranbir also did a great job. After watching the film, I tried finding my inner pain. But I did not find any. Then I was like, let’s continue without pain,” he told Film Companion.

Amar Singh Chamkila will be released on Netflix on April 12.

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