Imtiaz Ali explains what went wrong with Jab Harry Met Sejal.

Imtiaz Ali is a celebrated director but he got a lot of flak for his 2017 film Jab Harry Met Sejal, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma. During an interaction with Mayank Shekhar of Mid-Day, Imtiaz spoke about this film and a lot more.

Imtiaz Ali is from Delhi theatre background and even Shah Rukh Khan comes from the same world. Imtiaz said, “I knew about Shah Rukh Khan for sure. He had come here and he was already successful.”

He also added, “I had never thought that I’d make a film with Shah Rukh Khan. Never! It wasn’t a possibility and I wasn’t thinking about it. I thought, ‘He was too big’ (laughs). And he was and he is.”

When asked about the differences between Shah Rukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor, he replied, “Both are completely different. Shah Rukh is a very, very charming, intelligent, kind person. Both are very interested in people and both are very good with people in different ways. Shah Rukh has the confidence to reach out and talk to people. Ranbir is inhibited. He does not make the initial approach to start talking to someone. He waits for them to talk but he’s as interested as Shah Rukh.”

Explaining what went wrong with Jab Harry Met Sejal, Imtiaz Ali explained, “I have always done films like how I have done television and theatre. The story comes first and then everything fits into it. Shah Rukh is the biggest star I worked with. But Shah Rukh is such an accessible person otherwise that he doesn’t give you the impression that ‘I am somebody’. He’s just a regular guy sitting over here like how you are talking.”

He continued, “But the fact is that he’s such a humongous star is not something I calculated or made provision for at all. I had written and directed the film that I would for anybody. But he’s Shah Rukh. That manifested in ways that I was not expecting maybe.”

He also said, “The other thing is that I would have written the film differently. I would have had a flashback, I would have had scenes where Shah Rukh could be used to the best of his strength, both as an actor and as a star.”