Almost 20 years after Jawani Diwani: A Youthful Joyride hit the screens in 2006, actor Celina Jaitly is finally speaking out about her long-held disappointment with how her role in the film was handled. 

Sharing a video montage of her scenes with co-star Emraan Hashmi on Instagram on Tuesday, Celina wrote, “If I had directed this film, I would have told it from the perspective of the heart, from a place of raw, real emotion. I would never have allowed her, Roma Fernandez, to settle for someone who hurt her, used her, and diminished her worth. I would have honoured her journey, just as I was promised during the director’s narration.”

The romantic comedy directed by Manish Sharma — which also featured Hrishitaa Bhatt, Tiku Talsania and Mahesh Manjrekar — was marketed as a youthful entertainer but leaned heavily on the male lead’s storyline. Emraan played Mann Kapoor, a flirtatious aspiring singer entangled in a love triangle involving Roma, a woman who genuinely falls for him.

Celina revealed that what was initially pitched to her as Roma’s emotional journey was ultimately reduced to a supporting act in the narrative. “But just like my character was betrayed in the story, I too was betrayed, as an actor. What was meant to be her story became all about him — the serial kisser — while the woman who was kissed and believed it was love was pushed aside.”

She also clarified that her frustration wasn’t directed at her co-star but at the creative choices made by the production team: “This is not against my amazing co-star; this is against the mentality of the makers at the time, who chose spectacle over sincerity and diluted a woman’s voice for commercial convenience.”