Imran Khan on his long-overdue patch-up with Ekta Kapoor and returning to Milan Talkies
Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; February 19, 2015)

He’s currently shooting Katti Batti, but Imran Khan is happier to return to Tigmanshu Dhulia’s erstwhile Milan Talkies, which has been retitled Bhoole Se Naam Na Lo Pyar Ka.

The film revolves around a cinema hall and deals with the subject of movie piracy. And like Tigmanshu’s other films, this one is also based in a small town and is likely to be shot in Allahabad. “He wants to shoot there, but hasn’t locked in on the location. He will do a recce and decide. Also, since he wants to shoot in winter, the film will roll by December,” says Imran.

Milan Talkies was to be made two years ago, but after Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobaara, produced by Ekta Kapoor, flopped, Imran and she had a fallout, which resulted in his exit from Milan Talkies. Several actors from Shahid Kapoor to Aditya Roy Kapur were approached for the role. In fact, Aditya and Shraddha Kapoor were all but finalised for the film.

“I have no hang-ups if I believe in the director and the script. I liked the script and had committed to Tigmanshu even before I did Once Upon Ay Time... I am happy I will be doing it now,” says Imran.

The actor feels Ekta and he should have patched up sooner. “Unfortunately, it’s taken a year-and-a-half for that to happen. It would’ve been nicer if we had met a lot sooner,” he avers. What went wrong? All he’ll say is, “Signals get crossed in high-stress situations and there is a lot of miscommunication. There are a lot people in between... Recently, we bumped into each other and out of politeness we started talking. Baat karte-karte, we left all the unpleasantness behind us. She explained what she was feeling, I explained what I felt and we were able to come to a common ground and decided to go ahead with the film.”