When I was in school, I read a poem called The Highwayman, which was very effective. I was thinking this is such a thing to say, that ‘I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way.’ Then there was a song actually in Khuda Gawah (1992), in which the character of Badshah Khan (Amitabh Bachchan) says, ‘Main vaapas aaunga; main agar mar bhi gaya phir bhi vaapas aaunga’. I remember the impact of that song. Even while shooting this film, I didn’t think that it would be called Main Vaapas Aaunga. There was this scene we were shooting on a moving train. I had briefed Vedang Raina (actor), who is playing Kinu in the film, that he comes and he screams these same words. He’s making this promise to somebody, and it happened to be those words. During the take, I realised that this has to be the title of the film.

I saw some on the internet, but I’m not worried about that at all. This is not two love stories; it is just one story.

There is no love for Pakistan in the film. It’s a very personal story of one person. And it is not casting an allegation. It is not saying anything which is politically one way or the other. Anybody watching the film will not feel slighted by the fact that this is catering to anyone. The second thing is, is there a time for a love story to work? I’ve seen all of my life that any good film, whether it’s violent, bold, romantic or a comedy, is working at any particular time that it’s released. The audience is very strategic in the way that it wants to see films, and if the socio-political climate becomes very intense, maybe comedies will also work very well, and a film which is very intense and bloodthirsty will also work.

Perfection— no! As for things which made me happy, there are certain points in Rockstar (2011) and Chamkila (2024). In Chamkila, there was this portion where we had a beautiful sunset, and somehow, we had time in hand. I don’t know what we were doing, so I just asked Diljit (Dosanjh), ‘Please sit here, and I’ll play the song. You just listen to it and turn and look at the lens when I say.’ That’s the longest take in the film. And I thought, let’s take a chance at Mainu Vida Karo. So then I played it, and he heard it for the first time. Sometimes, you don’t even know why, and it feels nice.

Oh yes, I discover flaws very early. I remember that I saw Socha Na Tha (2005) after many, many years, and then I was laughing along with it, which is not something that ever happened for the first 10-15 years since its release. For a film like Jab Harry Met Sejal (2017), there was something very nice, which did not really turn out nicely. This whole angle of somebody being a womaniser or looking at themselves like an unstable character but having a story behind it… It was very enticing. I feel that even in Love Aaj Kal (2020), there were certain things which were underwhelming. There was a very beautiful thought, but I couldn’t bring it out in the best possible value.

There is no present plan as such. But hopefully there’ll be something that will have to top the other work that we’ve done.

Everyone here is very passionate and always trying to come across as strategic and professional. But I think they’re just a group of passionate drifters. I don’t know how they have so much time to just do gup-shup. When I met (actor) Shah Rukh Khan... he was sitting calmly for 5-6 hours, talking to me. How does he have so much time? It’s the same for all of the Khans, various other producers, directors — whoever you meet. I love that about the film industry. But unfortunately, what happens in the film industry is that with popularity comes power. Each one of them have so many people on their social media… it’s almost unfair. And if somebody has to say something about politics, etc., maybe we are not the most qualified, but we have to be damn careful.

I also feel lucky to be a part of the industry because I didn’t know anybody when I came here. It’s only with the support of these people that I could do anything.