Imran Khan: I was dating a girl when I was sixteen and her parents hated the fact that I was from a Muslim film family

Katti Batti has seen a grand release on the 18th of September, 2015. A heart of hearts conversation with Imran Khan shed more light on the film and a sneak peak on his personal side as well. This is the second part of the interview. In this part Imran talks about his personal journey and his roots. It also gives a little sneak peak into the star's personality, family and views about life in general.
You studied writing, directing and cinematography at the New York film Academy and even worked as a camera operator in a TV show.Didn't you ever feel the urge to go behind the camera? Do you have any future plans to don the hat of a director?
I graduated from film school when I was 22 years old and I felt I knew everything and when I came back to India, I felt that I'd change the world and show everyone how films are made. Today when I'm 32, having actually worked on a film set, I feel like I don't know anything. In ten years I have gone from feeling like I have all the answers and once I have actually been on a film set and have been part of movies, seen hits and flops suddenly I feel, I was such a cocky and over-confident young guy. I feel like I am not ready to direct a film. I feel like I need much more exposure, much more experience and confidence to take up that responsibility where I can tell a crew of over a hundred people what to do because at the end of the day it all rests on the shoulders of a director.
Even after doing 12 films you feel this way?
That's what makes me feel even more. Earlier it used to be like Haan bhai paise do picture banaata hu... now if someone offered me money, i will say Nahi Nahi... i am not ready. Let me learn more.
Once you said that you are a third generation Bollywood actor and ever since your childhood there was this stigma attached with Bollywood movies. People looking down on them, you further said you always found that offensive. Now that you've received so many praises and adulation, do you think all of it was a mirage?
Oh no... I am talking about that stigma which is still prevalent in most communities and cultures of our country. He asks me "Do you have any friends who have tried to make it in acting?" After my quick affirmative nod, he resumes saying they have difficulty getting a house on rent. If one is a girl, people take her to be a prostitute, if you are a guy and want to be a model people take you to be a gigolo. People do not want their sons and daughters to marry someone from the film industry. I was dating a girl when I was sixteen and her parents hated the fact that I was from a film family, a Muslim film family. On the surface of it you'd assume that these were well-educated, progressive people yet they would go for any other profession but Bollywood Nahi. That is the stigma that has still not wiped off. While we are in a Bollywood obsessed country, while we celebrate our actors and actresses, while we always want to know where they are going, what are they doing, who they are sleeping with... Sab kuch jaanna chahte hai, yet the stigma prevails strong.
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Many celebs have reacted on the meat ban - What is your take on it?
I feel that it is not worth my time to give my opinion on this because it is not going to change anything, nor is it going to be popular. As celebrities there is no shortage of a**holes who turn up at our doorstep with shoes and lathis because a costume in your film is offensive to some community...
(I interrupt) So do you think they derive some kind of a sadistic pleasure by doing that?
I really don't know what they derive, whether it s publicity visibility or just plain boredom. But the industry has always been a soft target. Be it the title of your film or the lyrics of your song or what the heroine is wearing or saying. There is no sympathy because one looks at the industry people and thinks them to be rich and hence should be targeted. That gives them the license to burn theatres that are showing their film, you can malign them in the press. There's no sympathy and you get a little bit of your publicity too. It is not worth my time for me.
Finally how would you describe your growth in films so far?
I really don't know, for the first time I feel like I have reached a point where I think whatever I'm doing is under my control. I have never trained as an actor, it is something that I have picked up from other actors and directors I have worked with. I have done workshops with various acting coaches before the start of each film and I feel like with each one I have picked something up. Katti Batti is the first time where I have actually felt like things were under my control. Right from Jaane Tu... I remember looking back at it and feeling that whatever I have done in the film was kind of by chance, I would keep trying and I would sometimes be right and sometimes wrong. For the first time now I feel like it has become less about chance and more about the intent where I have something in my mind I want to do and it actually comes out that way.
READ: ​‘Katti Batti’ trailer: Heartbroken Imran Khan and heartbreaker Kangana Ranaut promise a lot of fun
Did this happen just with Katti Batti, even though in many interviews you said that you don't really like working in the film?
Yeah...The script wasn't working for me, when I first read it, I had a strong negative reaction to it. I told him that it's not working for me, if you want to work together let's find something else and if you want to make this film please approach another actor. Nikhil(Advani) said "Nahi You are not understanding it". He just somehow wanted to narrate the story to me. Even after I refused he wouldn't budge. He was bent on narrating the story to me. I avoided him for about two months, thinking that he would get the message but that didn't happen and he kept calling me. That's when I had to give up and took out some time for him. I called him home out of courtesy and asked him to narrate the story to me. Suddenly after 15 to 20 minutes of the narration, I began wondering whether this is the same script I read because I started feeling interested and i wanted to do it. By the time he hit interval point, I realised I made a huge mistake. I read it wrong. I had missed his tone and treatment entirely. I was reading it too flat and was looking at it in a very clichéd sense. Nikhil(Advani) wanted to make it so much more real and organic to a point where their relationship suddenly started feeling real to me. Maddy and Payal's relationship breaks up after 7 years of being together in the story. Avantika and I have been together for 13 years and I started to see so much of myself and our relationshp in there. All the ups and downs, the fights that they have seemed, all seemed like a deja vu to me. More and more it started to feel like something that could happen to me. I began to get involved in their relationship. That was a very big wake up call for me and I agreed to do the film.
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WATCH: Katti Batti Trailer