INTERVIEW WITH IMTIAZ ALI - II

Who : Imtiaz Ali
About : Director of Jab We Met, Socha Na Tha
Website: www.imdb.com/name/nm1665004/

How it happened : Interview with Imtiaz Ali
Interview Date: Dec 8, 2007
Place: N/A (Interview taken over phone)
Pics : None

Nikhil Taneja(NT): You had been working on Rockstar after Socha Na Tha. So how did Jab We Met Happen?
Imtiaz Ali(IA): See there were some hassles in Rockstar, things were not coming together. Actually after Socha Na Tha, I started working on a few films but for one or the other reasons, they were not coming together. Rockstar was one of them. We were planning to shoot it sometime back but there some technical problems so we decided to put that on a backburner and that’s when Jab We Met happened.

NT: Before the movie started, rumours were doing the rounds that Bobby Deol and Ayesha Takia were the leads in the movie and the movie was called Geet? Was that true and if yes, what made you change to Kareena and Shahid?
IA: It is true. Actually nothing was really decided or confirmed but they were part of the movie but again, the same thing, because of various issues, we couldn’t settle down on a time schedule and the dates weren’t matching so we decided to not work on this right now and we put that on a backburner and that’s when we started working on Rockstar and when that didn’t work out either, we started working on Jab We Met. The situations were different in all three cases and when I started working on Jab We Met, everything just fell into place.

NT: It’s been said that you took only 2 days to write the story of JWM.
IA: Yes, it’s true. The first draft took just two days but then after that, you polish it many times before the movie and during the movie, improvise and stuff.

NT: How would you describe the JWM journey and experience
IA: I think since the movie was about a journey, it was a travel movie and so it was the same journey that the whole unit had undergone. It is a blessing that the movie has become a success and it’s such a big high for all of us considering that its pre production took 22 days and it always seemed to me like Jab We Met was almost like an individual which was in a hurry. It wanted everything to happen in a rapid fashion so we just went along and we actually felt like a circus caravan traveling from place to place.

The experience that the characters in the film have is also approximately like the experience we had because we were also traveling to those places and meeting new people, many of whom we used in the movie as actors as well. And we were seeing new places on the way on which we shot. So the experience or journey is what happened to all of us while in the shooting of the movie, which I guess lent some kind of a juice, something which made the movie interesting. Because we were also out there, where the movie was supposed to be, just like Geet and Aditya. So, that’s what I feel about the journey.

NT: How did you manage to keep the movie so real?
IA: See, I guess that movies are a reflection of the world that I see around me, which is very real. I don’t know anything else. I am not a cinema student, I don’t get inspired by other films. So I guess the way I see people and the way I see situations is the way I have represented them in the movie. And I was not trying to make it real or unreal or anything of that sort. This is how the understand the world and that’s how I have shown it.

NT: Did you expect the movie to be such a big success? It even replaced Saawariya in many theatres on its second week.
IA: While making this film, I didn’t have much time to think. It was all done in such a big hurry. We started with 22 days of pre production, and we shot the film in three months all over the place, so I didn’t have time to actually think about what the outcome of the film in the market is going to be. I did not have any expectations, or I did not know if it’s going to topple other movies in cinema halls. I had the feeling though that the subject matter is such that it would appeal to people actually, so yeah, I had no expectations which were bettered.

NT: So what are the best compliments you have got after the movie released?
IA: There have been many actually, but one guy actually told me very recently, I was on a holiday for a month and when I come back, someone told me that a couple which was going to divorce had gone to see Jab We Met and they came together after watching the movie! And they said that it’s because of the movie that they relived the time when they had together when they first met and that saved their marriage.

Actually, it’s a very humbling kind of a statement. Because when you make a movie you don’t think to do anything more than entertain anybody, but when someone’s marriage is affected in a way as big as this, it’s actually quite gratifying and humbling. It was a movie that everyone could relate to, which made people identify with it.

NT: You have mentioned how missing the trains is actually inspired from your own experiences. Tell us a little more about it.
IA: I am from a small town called Jamshedpur, which is connected by train to most places. So I have traveled to college in Delhi first, then to Bombay, it’s always been on train. So from my early childhood, I have been traveling on trains a lot and I love doing that, I think that’s a creative Indian experience you can get, which is very rare.

I think what’s always fascinated me about train travel is that you get to spend some time with people who you do not know, at very very close quarters. You know, somebody’s aunty is actually sleeping three feet away from you. You would never be able to get into her bedroom otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to see this woman asleep. But you can do that in a train. But it has always been very fascinating to me to see how people live that very short lifetime on a train. And also the possibility of meeting interesting people is always there on a train journey. In a flight it’s too short. In the train the best thing is that you don’t have anything to do, so you have to interact, you have to pass your time, so you don a personality.

And also, the other thing is that when you are traveling on a train and you are looking out, you kind of get quite fascinated by the fact that there is so much vastness around you but you always come and go in that very narrow track that the train is traveling on. So your experience is very limited in comparison to the experience or the range of experience that exists around you. Because you are always going on that one track and in some way is also symbolic of life. So the option of having to go off the track has always been very attractive to me. Of course, no body leaves the track of his life unless they are thrown of or they may have to, which is what happens in the film. It gives an opportunity to the film and it’s characters to travel outside the places they were planning to.

NT: That’s quite a lot of deep philosophy going into such a simple movie!
IA: That usually happens. I mean, I do not want to both anyone in a movie theatre about philosophy at all. But obviously, behind every simple aspect of life, there is a deep philosophy rooted to it.

NT: So how did the character of Geet come about?
IA: I have met a lot of girls who are very extroverted and who do not hesitate to talk with anybody about anything at all, who mix around a lot, and they get irritating sometimes. So it’s always very fascinating to meet somebody like this, you know. And most of these girls have been Punjabis. I have lived in Delhi for many years and have met quite a lot of girls who are like this in Delhi. And they somehow happen to be Sikhnis or Punjabis, mostly. I am sure everybody would be fascinated by people like this. And also, in some sort of a way, there is an unassuming quality about a girl who is otherwise good looking but does not waste he time trying to tell herself that she is good looking. She mixes with everybody and has a lot of positive energy about herself and about life. This is the kind of girl who would be an ideal companion in a train journey would influence someone to become like her.

NT: Did you get the idea of casting Kareena and Shahid also because they were together or only because they fit the bill?
IA: Shahid was not my first choice initially because I did not know him. But when I met him I realized that he would actually be the best person to play this role because I was looking at somebody young who could come across someone who had seen life. I had never met Shahid before so I thought he would be some immature, you know, young thing, but when I did meet him, he surprised me because he has a lot of experience of life and he has got a very mature head on his shoulders. So the moment I met him I realized that he was the right guy to play this part.

You are talking about a guy who has seen life enough to be disillusioned with it. He has lost his feeling of youth, so to speak. Since his teens, his mother has been involved with somebody else which has affected him very badly. And he is not a very old man, he is not a 40 year old man, he is a young man, he is a 25 year old man. But he has seen more life than a 25 year old man. So Shahid became the ideal choice for me when I met him.

As for Kareena, she was my first choice, because I knew that the girl who would act in this movie will not wear much make up. And she should look very attractive in the very casual, almost discrepant clothes that she is going to be wearing. Also, she should be able to look attractive while talking too much; she should not look irritating when talking. And the greatest thing was that Kareena has played this part before. She has not played a simple person on a train, who is just a part of a middle class family, and is also a Punjabi, talks too much and does not have a bad attitude problem. So I knew she would be attractive in this role.

NT: Why did you go in for an audience poll for the movie’s name? Was Jab We Met your first preference as well or would you have liked it to be called Punjab Mail or Ishq via Bhatinda?
IA: Initially, I would have liked the movie to be called Punjab Mail and not Jab We Met. But I was not very clear about which title to go with actually which is why we had the poll. I was thinking that unfortunately we had a few films called Calutta Mail and Bhopal Express and there’s Train to Pakistan too, which are all heavy films you know. I would have gone with Panjab Mail, but I thought the audience might think it’s a serious or heavy film or something.

NT: The music of the film is a film is a super success. What was your brief to Pritam?
IA: See, there was no time, there was no time at all to make this film. I have always believed that Pritam’s music has got a big heart. And I have known him since before I was a director and he was a music director. And I always used to say that it’s very sad that he hasn’t got the opportunity to make music from the heart. He’s always been approached for item numbers and stuff. But I believe he is perhaps one of the most talented musicians in the country and he’s never got the opportunity of showing a very strong side of his, which is the very romantic Bengali side. So in JWM, his songs were very Indian but at the same time, from the heart. So that was the general brief. Also the brief was that it should be unique. I had given him a very detailed brief of each of the songs and each of the situations in the movie.

He composed the movie in the process of his marriage actually. He was thinking that since he was getting married, he won’t be able to make the songs in time. But he realized that in the process of marriage there are lots of times when he has to do absolutely nothing and just sit. And while he was sitting and mantra shantra was happening around him, he was actually thinking up the songs of Jab We Met in his mind and recording it whenever he got the chance. And he was in touch with me over the phone even on the day he was getting married. So his marriage became a blessing for me.

NT: So Jab We Met is going to be a part of his life forever..
IA: (laughs) Yeah, it has the blessing of his marriage.

NT: What was your favourite bit about the music?
IA: My favourite song is Tum Se Hi and I like the way it was made. There was a lot of stress on both me and Pritam during the making of the movie and we were not getting the song. We tried a number of things for the song but it just wasn’t working out. And around 3 o clock one day, we finally cracked it and that’s how Tum Se Hi came into being. I really liked the music and the lyrics of the song. So the song is very special to me in the film.

NT: Saroj Khan did the choreography for Yeh Ishq. How was the experience of working with her on the song?
IA: Well my idea for the song was that it would be in a mountain space which would picturise people from all over Himachal Pradesh in it. So Saroj Khan was the best choice for it because she is the one person who could have given it that look and could have made so many different Himachali dancers dance to it. So what we had done was got people from various local folk dance troupes from various parts of Himachal, and there was a huge Tibetan group also. So all these people were brought to one place and screened. There were around 60 people and Saroj Khan screened them for 4 days and on the 5^th day she started shooting for the film. And it was a huge experience and a wonderful experience for me. I don’t think any other choreographer apart from her could have managed the feel of the song so well and all credit to her. I am really grateful to her.

NT: Where did you get the idea of using Walking on Sunshine as Kareena’s introduction in the promos?
IA: That came from the guy who made the promos. We have not thanked him enough for the kind of promos that he made for the movie. So he is the one who told me that the moment I narrated the story to him, Walking on Sunshine was always the song going on his mind. So he used it for Kareena’s entry in the promos. And it became such a huge hit.

NT: Is it true that you were planning to put it in the OST but couldn’t trace Katrina and the Waves to resolve copyright issues?
IA: Yeah that’s true. It wasn’t our property so we just used it in the promos so we could use it for a very short period of time. Some people told me that Walking on Sunshine has been heard on the radio too recently. So now people associate both Jab We Met with Walking on Sunshine and Walking on Sunshine with Jab We Met.

NT: Your favourite Jab We Met moment in the movie
IA: In the movie, it is the scene where Kareena calls and abuses her boyfriend.

NT: What are your favourite memories of working with Shahid and Kareena?
IA: With Kareena, When we had landed up in Rajasthan to shoot, it was very hot. And the place where we were shooting was far away from any five star hotel. And everybody was saying that we would stay in Jaipur and travel all the way to where we want to shoot but she said that no, if Imtiaz has decided the location and it’s three hours from any civilized place, I don’t mind, I am going to stay in the make up van but I’ll still shoot where he wants to shoot.

With Shahid, what I remember was that one location where we were shooting was Rohtang Pass. The weather had turned bad and people were like running helter skelter and we had to abandon shoot. And actually I remember Shahid and I were on the street trying to put everybody in vehicles and move. Because we knew that if anybody was on the street with the weather actually something might happen and somebody was going to die. And two people had already been declared dead in the area. And I remember the fiasco and frenzy with which Shahid and I were trying to get people back into their cars before us so everybody is safe and so nobody gets left behind. That’s what I remember about Shahid

NT: What was the best thing and worst thing about directing JWM?
IA: What was the best thing and worst thing about directing JWM?
Well, the bets and the worst thing, both, were that everything happened in a hurry. I never had any options, the first thought that would come in my mind was exactly what I had to do and carry on with. That was the worst thing because there was no time and that was also the best thing because it kind of encouraged me to be just instinctive.

NT: Anything about the movie that you think could have been better now that you look back to it?
IA: You know, there are details I am sure that every director when he sees his film would after sometime like to change a lot of things but all of that is not a subject of worry. You can always keep polishing but the decisions you take while you are working are the real decisions.

NT: Overall, though, you must be satisfied with Jab We Met?
IA: Satisfaction is something that no one really achieves, honestly, but I was okay with things when I was filming it, so I am okay with it.

NT: Finally, where do you go from here?
IA: I don’t know! Lots of ideas and stories are floating around in my mind but I am not sure which I want to make a movie on. I need to pick one idea and start working on that for my next movie, but I am not sure which one it would be.

© Nikhil Taneja (nikhiltaneja@gmail.com)