Imtiaz Ali: “People Come To Me & Say That My Films Have Broken The Stereotypes Of Karan Johar & YRF”

When Rockstar director Imtiaz Ali is on the stage, fans know they are up for an enlightening session. The director who is gearing up for his next film Aaj Kal, was present at the ongoing International Film Festival Of India (IFFI) where he was in conversation with veteran filmmaker Rahul Rawail. Imtiaz spoke about men crying in his films, his inspiration and what people think about him breaking stereotypes.

To honour Rahul Rawail, the session saw the clips of his movies Arjun and Dacoit followed by the screening of Imtiaz Ali’s short film India Tomorrow.

Filmmaker Rahul Rawail said, “You learn while watching films and understand what other people have done. There were incidences in Arjun where Sunny Deol cried but he didn’t cry the way he should at that point of time but what Imtiaz has done in his films, that is commendable.”

“My elder son Bharat heads the creatives at YRF and the younger one Shiv is soon going to be launched as a director by YRF. When I made Love Story, Amjad Khan was Gabbar Singh and I wanted to cast him for the role of a funny constable, people called me crazy but he fit the role. I was in the middle of shooting Arjun and I thought of removing Dimple Kapadia from the film…also shortened the runtime of the film but my producers didn’t approve of this and even forced me to add more scenes,” he shared.

Director Imtiaz Ali said, “I got inspired to make films by filmmakers Rahul Rawail and J P Dutta since they were about travel. The reflection of their films is visible in my films. The background of the movie Arjun was very unconventional. In fact, in Pahalgam, there is a lake called Betaab valley on the name of the film.”

“It is said that cinema is inspirational, We say cinema lets you do whatever you can’t do in real life. Being a guy, I never cried and my mother used to call me heartless… funnily but on the other hand, my male protagonists have always cried in my films,” he added.

He further stated, “A lot of people come to me and say that my films have broken the stereotypes of Karan Johar and YRF but it is definitely not in my conscious. What I write in my scripts and show in my films, doesn’t mean I have seen that earlier.”

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