Imtiaz Ali looked back at Rockstar on the sixth anniversary of the romantic drama as having parts which hit you emotionally but are also quite “illogical” at times.

After a string of feel-good, light rom-coms, Rockstar starring Ranbir Kapoor and Nargis Fakhri was in the space of an intense dark love story. And it got divided reactions.

Imtiaz answered six questions from PTI about the journey — which he has not seen in a “long time” — from how it landed to Ranbir from John Abraham, a 40-minute song which Rahman composed and what “Jordan” might be doing today after the death of his lover “Heer”. Excerpts:

It has been six years since the movie released. What does the film speak to you today?

Imtiaz: It’s a film I was most emotionally involved with while in the making. I feel there were certain parts of it which were very clean, very pure. It (the film) has become restless which was not my intention. I also feel there are certain parts of the film that just hit you in the chest. What I can see very clearly now is that whatever merit might be there in Rockstar — or whatever you might associate with Jordan doing and getting affected by it — none of it seems logical. What I see in the film now, is that there is an absence of logic even in the way the screenplay is written. Jordan is such an illogical person, nothing is cerebral. 

Jordan has so much angst in him, which is very unlike Imtiaz Ali that we know today. Where did the angst come from?

Imtiaz: There is a friend of mine who said he could associate with the angst of Rockstar. He comes from a privileged background, rich family, he is doing well in his life and everything is good. I asked him the same question: where is this angst coming from? There is no reason for angst in your life, you’re not like Jordan. He said ‘I don’t know where this is coming from!’ My answer is the same. I don’t know. It’s so illogical. It’s not as if something happened in my life to give me the angst.

Between Jordan and Janardhan, which came first?

Imtiaz: The plot came first. The thought that a guy says ‘I want my heart to be broken so I can become a musician’. But what happens with this plot is, the moment someone says this, you already start thinking what kind of guy he must be to say that. So you know he has to be non-cerebral and stupid (person). He has to be ‘uncool’. Though the plot came first, the character was written between the lines of the plot.

So six years later, where do you think Jordan is right now?

Imtiaz: I think he has moved away from a city (referring to a remote area). He is in a place where no one recognises him and he is not doing music. 

But it is tough to imagine Jordan without music!

Imtiaz: Yes but he hates it, because he feels that’s what took Heer away from him. He is now showing his anger towards music, rather than through it. 

Initially you were supposed to make the film with John Abraham. How did the film come to Ranbir?

Imtiaz: I was planning to make this film with John long time back... sometime after Socha Na Tha. But then I made Jab We Met and Love Aaj Kal. The important thing which happened was, I lost the script of Rockstar.

Then I had to re-write it. When I re-wrote it, the basic flow was still similar but Jordan completely changed. In fact, once when I had met Ranbir he had reminded me of this script. I said I have lost it, I’ll write it from my memory. So, because I re-wrote the script, it took a new form.

You once said that A.R. Rahman had created a 40-minute version of Kun Faya Kun. What was the story there?

Imtiaz: He made a track and sent me a long time back and then later he said I am sending you more tracks. He basically sent improvisations of music sessions. There was a 10-minute piece which he had already sent before. So, it was improvisations of harmonium and vocals clocking around 30-40 minutes. We then selected parts we liked from the different improvisations and then this track was made.