Neha Maheshwri (BOMBAY TIMES; May 8, 2019)

Punit Malhotra is super excited about the release of Student Of The Year 2 (SOTY 2), a much-awaited film of 2019. But that’s not the only reason that makes it special for him. It also marks his return to filmmaking after keeping a low-profile for six years following the debacle of his last film, Gori Tere Pyaar Mein (GPTM), a film that taught him important lessons about life. The director, who comes from a family of achievers, is back in the game with a feel-good campus love story. Read on to know what the filmmaker has to say about overcoming failures, making a comeback and falling in love...

Why did it take you six years to get back to direction after your last outing,with GTPM?
Technically, it’s been five-and-a-half years. After GTPM flopped, I needed time to introspect. I was depressed for about 10 months, where I was sitting at home and doing nothing. Eventually, I realised that the only way out was to pull up my socks and start working hard again. That’s when SOTY 2 came about. It’s been a journey of about four years. The original draft was a completely different story.

Tiger came on board and he was happy to do the film. However, we pulled the plug on it in 2017, exactly three months before the shoot was scheduled to commence. It did not have the right energy that we wanted. So, I went back to the drawing board and rewrote the whole script.

Was the pressure of putting yourself together and getting back far more because you come from a family of overachievers, like fashion designer Manish Malhotra and your grandfather, producer Ram Dayal Sabarwal, who launched Rekha?
I was quite harsh on myself. While I was looking for answers at that time, someone gave me the advice of my life, which was...‘You will keep looking for answers, but you will find none’. And that’s true, I still don’t have answers. Ask me why GTPM failed? I don’t know. Did I work hard on it? Yes, I did. Is there anything I could have done differently? Maybe. But these are things that you say in retrospect. I wake up every day wishing that it hadn’t happened. It was after all my first failure, which caused me a lot of heartbreak. Kareena (Kapoor-Khan) and Imran (Khan) were far more mature than me. They have been through a longer journey. I can tell you that I didn’t take it well. They still have a very good equation with me. If I were in their place, I wouldn’t have looked at me (laughs!). But then, you have to move on, put your head down and work hard. It wasn’t only about making a movie, it was also about working, paying bills and earning money. In between, I started a company with Karan Johar and made a lot of commercials. The idea was to keep polishing and honing my craft. I think people saw my hard work and maybe, that’s why I was given another chance.

How was it like to start afresh?
The very first time I walked onto a set, I questioned my talent — whether I could direct or not? But I had made several ads in the meantime, which helped rebuild my trust. Still, going to a movie set again was an emotional moment for me. I must give credit to people and my team who have backed me. Yes, there were some who vanished, but there were also those who joined the project for me and that shows their love for me. A lot of actors also called and told me that it’s okay and that they have all been through this at some stage in their career. The one man who stood by me during my failure is Karan Johar. I was fortunate that a lot of support came my way.

You said you had to rewrite the script. What did you have to change in the original draft?
Well, the first draft was a bit serious. And SOTY has a loyal audience comprising teenagers, who may not want to see something that serious. If I try to put too much depth in SOTY 2 and impart a message, I will get a kick in my face. I’m not saying that it doesn’t have depth, but you have to go with the emotion and vibe of the film. Every film has its own fabric and you need to be honest to it; this is something I learnt with GTPM. It was a romcom, which failed because it got serious in the second half. I realised that no matter what you make, you need to be honest to the subject.

In this age of realistic cinema, do you fear that a film like SOTY 2 could come across as frivolous…
I wouldn’t like to believe that, because the audience has been exposed to the world that we have tried to project so far. Now we will steer them into a different world. If you ask, whether it is still commercial, fluffy, feel-good cinema? Yes, it is. There is an aspirational value to the film as people hope to be in a school like the one shown in the film. The film is about a small-town boy who gets enrolled in an upscale college, gets thrown out, goes back and fights that. At its heart, it is the story of an underdog, who comes of age.

Karan said that he made SOTY at 40, because he was going through a mid-life crisis and wanted to feel young. What was your reason?
The story of SOTY 2 is similar to my personal experience — of resurrection and making a comeback. Tiger saw the similarity in the story with my life and pointed it out. The story is about realising your dream and I hope that emotion comes through. If you get a high watching Tiger’s character and seeing him lift the trophy, you will feel the same for me.

After having worked with stars, what was it like to direct debutantes, Tara Sutaria and Ananya Panday?
While established stars are trained and know what they are doing, there is an element of surprise with a newcomer. There could be a drastic difference between how you would expect them to be and how they turn out. It’s a fine balance that you get in between that. And it’s exciting because you have to get them to your pitch.

For someone who’s grown up watching mushy romances, your first film was strangely titled I Hate Luv Storys. So, where do you exactly stand on the topic of love? Do you believe in it or not?
I have not been in love in a while. We are a generation, where love has become Tinder. It’s more about compatibility than blind love. This is a fast-food generation, which seems to reflect in their attitude towards love, too. I believe in love and am hoping it will happen to me, too, but there is also a cynic in me who thinks that it’s all rubbish.