Casting Randeep and Alia together in 'Highway' was a risk: Imtiaz

He has been hailed as the Yash Chopra of modern times, reinvigorating romantic movies and portraying the changing definition of love among through his films like 'Socha Na Tha', 'Love Aaj Kal' and 'Rockstar'. Though most of his movies had their script revolving around metro couples, Imtiaz Ali, feels it’s the small-town love stories that excite him most.Imtiaz, who came to his hometown recently for a professional engagement, talks to TOI about his love for poetry, his equations with Ranbir and decision to cast Randeep in 'Highway'.
READ: I wanted 'Highway' to be my first film: Imtiaz Ali
“I’m a romantic at heart and feel obviously feel good when someone compares me to the legends of the silver screen and appreciates the hard work I put into my movies. Consciously, I’ve never aimed to get into someone else’s shoes. I just try to portray what I see among the younger generation today. The social mores are vastly different now than what they used to be in the 80s or even the 90s and are still evolving at a rapid pace. Though the underlying feelings have remained the same, I’ve only tried to capture these various moods of love through my movies and I’m happy that my audience liked my effort,” he said.
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Talking about his love for writing poetry, Imtiaz said it was through writing that he decided to make a career in the film industry. “Though I basically belong to Patna, I spent most of my childhood in Jamshedpur at my relative’s place. They owned some movie theatres in the city. So I used to watch films free of cost. I also watched them repeatedly till each scene was firmly embedded in my subconscious and ran again in my dreams. So, I started writing poetry to give vent to my feelings and my friends and family liked it. It was then that I realized that that the 70 mm screen was my ultimate destination,” Imtiaz said.
Coming from a small town, Imtiaz says it is the smaller towns of the country where all the action is these days. “We need to understand that our metro cities are way ahead of our smaller town brethren in almost all spheres. Be it the infrastructure and the facilities available or the kind of mini-societies that have developed there, which is also because of the hectic pace of life, where time is above all emotions. In smaller towns, open expression of love is still considered behayai but still, romance blooms like anything. Youngsters there are still afraid of expressing their love and still wait outside colleges, just to get a glimpse of their love. So, towns like Jamshedpur or Kanpur are full of exciting stories, waiting to be told. Of course, things are definitely changing here too, but watching things change and how it complicates things further definitely makes it even more interesting,” he said.
Since Imtiaz belongs to Jharkhand, which has sparked interest among Bollywood and Tollywood directors of late, we asked the director if he plans to base any of his upcoming projects in the state. He turned apologetic: “Apart from some minor projects here and there, I don’t think any big production house would like to shoot their film in Jharkhand because of the total lack of proper infrastructure. The government should first work towards providing basic amenities like land, electricity and water supply at a location, apart from putting an economically conducive film promotion policy in the place. Once, these things are implemented, I don’t think anyone would be having any problem in shooting their movie in Jharkhand,” the director said.
Talking about his upcoming movie, 'Highway', which is raising curiosity among his fans given the unique cast, interesting title and secrecy shrouding the project, Imtiaz hoped that the audience would like the way he had treated the script. “Casting Randeep and Alia together in 'Highway' was definitely a risk, but the chemistry has come out as beautifully as I had imagined. Both are immensely talented actors and I believe moviegoers would love to see the pair together,” he said.