That Goa trip with friends — the one you keep talking about and social media never seems to stop talking about — has become almost a tradition. Even filmmaker Imtiaz Ali has a memorable Goa trip of his own, which he recently shared at the launch of the state’s first community radio station in Panaji on Saturday.

Imtiaz’s first trip to Goa was in 1993, after he and his friends earned some money by staging a play. With their first earnings in hand, they decided to head to Goa. “That was our first earning. I hired a bike and went to all kinds of places. That was the craze of being in Goa,” the Main Vaapas Aaunga director recalled.

But the trip also coincided with a significant moment in his life. While his father believed he was studying in Delhi, Imtiaz was beginning to question the conventional career path he was expected to follow. Around the same time, he had told his father that he did not want to pursue the UPSC examination or become an IAS officer.

“My father had no clue about this trip, as I was supposed to be studying in Delhi for UPSC. But at the same time, I had told my father that I didn’t want to do UPSC and be an IAS officer,” he said.

Instead of discouraging him, his father gave him the freedom to choose his own path. “My father became a very important person to me. He was the one who supported me and said, ‘You choose the line of your choice but do the best in it,’" Imtiaz recalled.

Imtiaz was speaking at the launch of Goa’s first community radio station in Panaji, where he was joined by actor Rahul Bose and actress Bhumi Pednekkar.