Writer-director Mohit Suri has not only borrowed from the lives of Mahesh Bhatt's parents, Nanabhai Bhatt and Shirin Ali, for his upcoming love story, Hamari Adhuri Kahani, he has also adapted his director uncle's emotional approach to filmmaking, which includes shooting in real spaces.

“Bhatt Sahab had done this for Arth,“ Mohit explains. “He had gone back to shoot in his own home because he believes that real spaces add an emotional connect that can never be created on sets.“

The 1982 drama, starring Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Raj Kiran was an autobiographical film which explored Bhatt's extramarital relationship with Parveen Babi. And for his next, Mohit has shot in a building in Bandra, where his leading lady, Vidya Balan, tied the knot with husband, Siddharth Roy Kapur. “The flat is owned by an old Parsi lady and we coaxed her to let us use it to set up home for Vidya's character, Vasudha,“ says Mohit. “I spent my childhood in flats around Dadar's Shivaji Park and pictured a typical Maharashtrian home with a huge kitchen, wooden doors and a small mandir for my heroine. There would be five-six flats on each floor and people would leave their shoes outside the door. Vidya was perfectly at home in the middle-class surroundings, stretching out on the floor, leaning against the sofa, smiling secretly as she texts Emraan's character in the film.“

She sprawls out on the kitchen floor again, this time clinging to it in desperation, in another scene where her on-screen husband, played by Rajkummar Rao, slaps her. “It's one of my favourite scenes. Vidya falls to the ground and breaks down, weeping inconsolably,“ he reminisces.