IMTIAZ TO TURN PRODUCER WITH BROTHER’S FILM
Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali is shooting for his next with actors Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma. But the film that he’s most excited about is the one in which he will work with his younger brother Arif Ali (who directed Lekar Hum Deewana Dil; 2014). This will also be Imtiaz’s maiden production venture. The film, Love In Tokyo (LIT), is going to be an Indo-Japan co-production along with the a Japanese entertainment conglomerate.
Talking about why he will not direct the film, the 45-year-old filmmaker says, “Right from the film’s inception, it was clear that I won’t be directing it, but that I will create the situation for someone else to direct. And very soon, we zeroed in on Arif, and along with him, I have developed the storyline. Then, he wrote the script.”
Imtiaz says he is “looking forward” to working with Arif since “he thinks very differently than me.” “Arif has a very clear and distinct set of ideas. I liked his debut film, which didn’t do well at all. But since my debut film also hadn’t done very well, I know that this industry does give you many chances,” he says.
Has the film got anything to do with the 1966 Joy MukherjeeAsha Parekh starrer film of the same name? “What I liked about the Japanese style of working is that before they approached me to make this film, they had already acquired all the rights of the original film. They thought the title is very good and wanted to use it. The movie has nothing to do with the original film in terms of storyline, except for the title,” he clarifies.
With several successful films in his kitty, does Imtiaz ever feel any performance pressure? “I am here for the excitement of my work. The pressure of others’ expectations doesn’t bother me. The pressure of my own excitement kills me as I don’t do any other analysis. There are so many things that I want to do and I am thankful to the forces that I get the opportunity to do them,” he says.
A contemporary love story, the entire film that will “more or less” be entirely shot in Japan, will see a mix of Indian as well as Japanese actors besides a number of other collaborations.
Imtiaz says that since Japan “lends itself to seasons in a drastic manner”, the film would start to be made in the beginning of the second half of this year. ■