What made you want to revisit an older idea?

In these 10 years, after the release of the previous Love Aaj Kal, I have noticed that the process of relationships has undergone a sea change. Things that were difficult to achieve in a relationship or took time back then, happen very early now. So, the process has changed but the essence of what you’re looking for in a love relationship remains the same. Intimacy has changed in its meaning... emotional and physical intimacy don’t even mix sometimes in modern relationships. These things became very interesting to me and I engaged with that. I got fascinated by this change that has happened and that brought about this whole concept of two stories separated by 20 years... how different they are and yet how similar. It became even more fascinating that I made a film 10 years back and within 10 years, how much has changed. I felt I had something to say.

Social media and dating apps play an integral part in relationships these days. Was there anything specific you learnt that surprised you?

The thing that fascinated me was that there’s so much communication happening at all times. There’s so much being said, but very little that actually matters. With all this communication, you would think that people would be less lonely but strangely, people are more lonely than ever before. You’ve lost the silence in the crowd but it makes you more desperate to have someone of your own, somebody you can talk to and have a meaningful vibe with. I notice that about everybody now. I also noticed that young people notice details a lot... it’s almost like they’re seeking more than the previous generations. It’s like they’re seeking something real and palpable, which could be very different from what I was seeking when I was 20 years old.

At age 40-something and being as famous as you are, what does it take for you to get an understanding of millennials and how their world operates?

The most important thing is interest in general. You can’t be interested only because you’re making a movie... you make a movie because you’ve been involved and have seen interesting things which form a story in your head. There’s also my daughter, who’s now 19 years old. Like any parent, I’ve been involved in her growing up and the formation of her ideas and how she looks at things, how she looks at herself and the relationships in her life. Also, how she looks at me and what her opinions are about everything else. I think she’s been instrumental in me thinking of this story in this way. In some sort of way, this film is also a communication between her and me.

Why call it Love Aaj Kal? I am guessing it fits the story but is very confusing...

Obviously, there’s been a lot of deliberation, but it originated from there. There was always this thing about how ‘love aaj kal’ now is so different from ‘love aaj kal’ then. Had we made that film now, this is how it would have been. That’s why we wanted to call it Love Aaj Kal because that title gave birth to this story. There’s a boy who would do this and a girl who would do that and an older person running a cafe whose story we get into. It was an extension of that thought or that franchise, which is why I wanted to call it Love Aaj Kal. I didn’t want to call it Part 2 because that’s confusing... it’s not a sequel or extension of that story. These are all fresh characters and the story is fresh, except for the concept, which is two stories interacting with and influencing each other.

Sara Ali Khan’s character is reminiscent of Geet from Jab We Met and Sejal from Jab Harry Met Sejal, just in terms of the spark in her.

Sara’s character Zoe has a lot of energy and so did Geet. She also has a lot of spunk that Geet had, but I think Zoe is more conflicted. Geet was freewheeling... she had already decided she wants to run away and she did. She didn’t reach far enough to understand the consequences. Sejal is someone who is not exposed to the world and she’s naive.

On the other hand, Zoe is a modern-day person who has already seen the perils of romantic submission because the previous generation has gone through it. She’s carrying the baggage of previous generations through her relationships. She’s conflicted, there is a greater fight between her heart and her mind. In Geet, there was no fight between the heart and the mind... there was only heart that was going on. Here, there’s also a person who wants to make a career, but at the same time wants a magical, romantic relationship and is finding it difficult to manage both.

Imtiaz Ali with Kartik Aaryan and Sara Ali Khan at the trailer launch of Love Aaj Kal

A lot of the chatter online after the film’s trailer dropped wasn’t very positive. Do you pay attention to it?

I don’t actually pay much attention, but I do get the analysis. My day is spent completing the film but when I come out of the studio, I get all the information and process it.

How do you then not let it bother you?

I might be producing this film, but I think like a director, that’s my first impulse. So, I’m much more interested in completing the movie than the publicity of a film. I know that I have a lot of duties to perform before the release and that’s what I am focused on.

One of the most common criticism seen online after the trailer launch was that your films are beginning to look and feel similar. How do you react to that?

I feel much of that criticism went away after the first song released. In the trailer we’re trying in three-and-a-half minutes to represent the film in some way. But I don’t make my trailers. The song (Shayad) gives you the opportunity of seeing things in the sequence they’re meant to be in the film as well. You get a glimpse of the world the film is set in, a lot better.

Having said that, I’m not ashamed or embarrassed by the criticism. I accept it and more than anybody else, I think about it in a bid to improve myself. I think about whether I have anything new to say in my films, and thankfully I don’t have that insecurity with this film. I know that I have something new to say here and once people watch the film, they’ll understand. The important thing for me is that I’m here because I’m interested in making movies. I feel compelled to tell certain stories that come to my mind and cannot apply mathematics to this. I cannot make an equation wherein my stories become broader or that I start making different genres in order to be more wholesome. It can’t be by design... it’s an instinctive process. I think of a story that excites me and begin to write it or make it. These are the stories that come naturally to me.

The strange thing about the film industry is that people tell you things that are opposite to each other all the time. A lot of people would come and tell me that my stories are so different or that my films are so drastically different from each other. And some others will come and tell me that my films are all similar because it’s the same story each time, with someone trying to discover themselves through romance and that there’s travel involved. Each person thinks they’re right and I don’t know who is... I’m just happy that people have an opinion. As long as people like my movies, I’ll always get the opportunity to make another one and that’s what I’m aiming for.

This film also marks your debut as a producer. What can we expect next from Window Seat Films?

There’s a digital series we’ve made, it might come on Netflix... we’re closing that deal. And I’m very excited about being a producer only because it gives me a chance of involving myself creatively and in more things than I could purely as a director. As a director, I can make one film in two years or maybe a year-and-a-half. But as a writer, as somebody who can contribute to music or design, I can work on multiple things. This gives me the chance to do more because there are lots of things that I want to do. And there are some things I might want to do that I haven’t written, for instance. It also gives me a chance of working with other creative minds, it makes my experience richer. Hopefully, we’ll be creating a lot of things.