Jab We Met director Imtiaz Ali: Even after a decade, people love its simplicity

Considering the film featured the then real-life couple Shahid and Kareena, when asked if it was easy to get the crackling onscreen chemistry from them, the filmmaker said, “I wouldn’t like to delve into anybody’s past life. The chemistry is not between stars, else it will be the same for every film. Chemistry is between characters of a story; the actors are playing those characters that’s why they look interesting together or not.”

‘Jab We Met’ became a career changing step for Shahid and Kareena and not many would know, that Bobby Deol was considered for the lead role initially. On being asked if the film was a lucky charm for them, he said, “Lucky is when you don’t do anything to deserve it. They have worked very hard to deserve the success that they got in Jab We Met. It turned out very well, in that way they are very helpful and sure and they consider themselves very fortunate.”

Stating that he would like to change a lot of things in the film, Imtiaz said, “There are lots of things that I would like to change. Now that 10 years have happened and people are still loving it, I would resist myself from doing that, otherwise I will get beaten up by the fans for doing that (laughs).”

The filmmaker, known for his romantic films like ‘Socha Na Tha’, ‘Rockstar’, ‘Tamasha’ and ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’, said that he will never invest into remaking classic movies because he feels it will never turn out to be that good. Further talking about complicated love stories in his films, Imtiaz said, “I think, I try to bring what I see in life. I have never seen a real-life situation of affection between two people without having any conflict in it. So, in my movie I cannot have any straightforward affection where people start liking each other just sitting across the table. People will not like to watch it.”

When asked why romantic films never make it to National Awards or Oscars, the filmmaker replied with a smile, “I personally don’t like films that try to say that “Look at me, I am award-winning”. I find that very “uncool”. Yes, it’s true that love stories tend to be popular but not films that people give awards to. I think it’s a good counter balance because they also get more popular of less awards.”

Lastly, talking about his future projects, Imtiaz said, “For me there are two films that I am working on that I want to make at some point of time”.

Jab We Met will premiere on October 26, 10:30 am on &pictures SD and 8 pm on &pictures HD.