Almost six years after making her Bollywood debut with Student Of The Year 2 (2019), Ananya Panday is college-bound again thanks to producer Karan Johar. Last November, the filmmaker announced Chand Mera Dil, featuring Panday and Lakshya. After a bit of digging, we have learnt that Vivek Soni’s directorial venture is a college romance centred on engineering students. The director will call action on the project later this week.

A source tells us, “For the past three months, the film, which sees Ananya and Lakshya play engineering students, was in pre-production. Vivek will take it on floors on March 15. The first schedule will take place in Pune, where the team has zeroed in on a leading college where most of the campus portions will be shot.”

This marks Soni’s third collaboration with Johar’s banner, after Meenakshi Sundareshwar (2021) and the upcoming Aap Jaisa Koi.

Another source says, “Vivek brings a fresh voice to relationship dramas. With Meenakshi Sundareshwar, he explored a long-distance marriage, and Aap Jaisa Koi will be a take on age-gap romance. With Chand Mera Dil, he attempts to understand what loves means to today’s youth.”

Every age writes its own love story, and every generation speaks a new love language. But looking back at 2024 reveals we are stuck in a time warp, at least when it comes to love on screen. “Most people who have written to me since the re-release of Laila Majnu are in the age bracket of 13 to 17 years,” says filmmaker Sajid Ali, whose 2018 romantic drama became a hit upon re-release this year.

“When we made this film seven years ago, we thought we were making it for people in their 30s to 50s who have some understanding of classical literature. But ultimately, teenagers have held this film closer to their hearts.”

Initially, the Avinash Tiwary-Triptii Dimri starrer earned around R3 crore at the box office. Upon its re-release, the collection is estimated to be over Rs. 10 crore. Laila Majnu is not alone in a replay of success. Ranbir Kapoor’s 2011 angsty romance, Rockstar, re-ran in theatres for over a month and amassed more than Rs. 5 crore, doing better business in its fifth week than it did in the fifth week after its original release. Social media feeds are crowded with essays, videos, and pictures of youth loving the return of love. They don’t make them like that anymore, is the overriding sentiment. So then, is love lost in a crowd of actioners, spectacles, sci-fi and horror comedies on screen?

Filmmaker Vivek Soni, who has two romantic films coming up— Ananya Panday-Lakshay starrer Chaand Mera Dil and Aap Jaisa Koi on Netflix with R Madhavan and Fatima Sana Shaikh—says the success of re-releases speaks more about people’s desire to relive experiences, not genres.

“People go for nostalgic value,” he says, “Even I wanted to watch Dil To Pagal Hai and Veer-Zaara. People now want to watch Shah Rukh Khan’s dialogues and scenes again on the big screen. But will they watch a new romantic comedy? The test will be how well a new romantic release does in theatres.”

A studio executive echoes Soni’s sentiment: “Who doesn’t want to see SRK romancing once again? Or Ranbir Kapoor? Either you want to recreate the experience, or you missed it the first time it released and want another go. That’s what happened with Laila Majnu. It grew on OTT, and people wanted to experience it on the big screen.”

Since the COVID-19-induced lockdown, industry hits have either been big-scale actioners or horror comedies. Successful romcoms such as Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya, Zara Hatke Zara Bachke have been far and few in between. “The audience has shown more interest in event films than relationship dramas,” says Soni.

“Most people prefer watching relationship dramas or mid-scale films at home. So, makers are cautious about the canvas and scale of what they make for theatres. Similarly, stars also do event films for theatres—the whole chain has been affected.”

The demand for romcom is higher on OTT. “Most romances have moved to OTT,” a trade pundit says, “and streaming platforms like them because they are low-stakes stories. Unless you find a big idea and scale within a romance, like Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani or the upcoming Dhadak 2, an inter-caste love story.”

Bihar-based exhibitor Vishek Chauhan believes the audience has no bias towards a genre but invests in films that offer something new. “Right now, only action [films] work because that’s what people are making. Once there’s a good romantic film, people will come to theatres to watch it; they haven’t sworn the genre off. A theatre release must be about everyone and be understood by everyone—from Pune to Purnia. Yesteryear directors like Yash Chopra understood India; they were connected to the roots. They knew how a common man thinks. Take for instance Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ)—it united classes—it started in England and ended in Punjab. Today, that understanding is missing.”

Another creative sheds light on challenges in making a romance palatable to the masses. “Earlier, the demographics were still homogeneous,” he says. But today, the fragmentation of audiences across multiplexes and B and C centres is enormous. People’s experience of watching the same thing is varied. There’s no homogeneity. A film like  Animal will work in mass centres, even though the urban class criticizes it. Similarly, Rocky Aur Rani… did good business in urban centres but not in B and C centres. It’s difficult to have a DDLJ moment today.”

For Tanuja Chandra, who last helmed the charming romantic comedy Qarib Qarib Singlle (2017), it’s just a matter of time before love overtakes violence and action. “There is confusion in the industry at present,” she says, “and many producers don’t know which road to take. The perception is that pulling audiences with noise and fireworks [action and violence] is easier. I don’t think that’s true. And violence under a sheen of glamour is something to be wary of in a world sinking into an abyss of the most horrific violence. The perception that softer stories are unlikely to draw people to theatres has been proven wrong repeatedly.” 

There’s also a creative challenge to making a romantic film that screenwriter Ankur Pathak breaks down:  “A filmmaker recently told me, ‘These days, a large part of love takes place virtually… it doesn’t inspire the desire to shoot or create drama.’  A love story needs relentless conflict to sustain itself, and because our love lives are largely dependent on communication through WhatsApp, DMs and tweets, there’s not much room to make it cinematically exciting.” 

Another creative professional shares how a high concept is necessary for a young love story to fly today. “Earlier, you could separate lovers, leaving no means of communication. If lovers are separated today, the whole communication needs to go haywire. Straightforward romance is becoming difficult to crack without a core idea. Or it has to have mature characters who reflect those times—like Qarib Qarib Singlle or The Lunchbox. These aren’t reflective of today’s romance. So you have to either go back in time or have mature characters.”

Soni believes success will come in making romance personal while understanding audiences’ tastes. “Until five years ago,” he says, “a simple story of two people falling in love, lots of songs and a milieu worked. Today, people don’t have the patience to enjoy slow-burn stories or even songs. While travelling by train the other day, I saw a gentleman watching a film on his phone, and he was constantly skipping the establishment shots. This is what we are dealing with.” 

He adds, “My assistants are 10 years younger than me; they also want to experience passionate, intense love. They look at that kind of love with a sense of aspiration. As long as you make it personal, a romance will become aspirational.”

Chandra sums it up by saying love will find its way to the screen if filmmakers don’t play it safe. “A disarmingly honest story is bound to be compelling. We just need to be rid of our fears as storytellers.”

There is a new romance brewing in the city, albeit for the cameras. Only last month, it was reported that R Madhavan and Fatima Sana Shaikh were set to team up for a love story. Now, mid-day has learnt that the project has gone on floors. So, what is the actors’ maiden collaboration all about? From what we’ve heard, it’s a May-December romance of sorts, with Madhavan’s character coming across a younger woman on a dating app. Sources tell us that it is tentatively titled Tharki.

Director Vivek Soni, who previously helmed Sanya Malhotra and Abhimanyu Dassani-starrer Meenakshi Sundareshwar (2021), is offering a light-hearted take on the unusual love story.

An insider reveals, “Madhavan plays a virgin, who is in his mid-40s. He comes across Fatima’s character, a woman in her early 30s, on a dating app, and how the two fall in love forms the crux of the story. It’s a quirky and contemporary take on the relationship.”

The cast includes Namit Das, who plays the protagonist’s close friend, and Karan Wahi in a special appearance. While the film rolled in Mumbai in early November, the unit’s next stop will be Kolkata in December. The OTT film, produced by Karan Johar’s Dharmatic Entertainment, will find a home on Netflix. 

Tharki marks Madhavan’s return to the rom-com genre almost a decade after Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2015). “Madhavan’s fans in the Hindi audience have always enjoyed his romantic comedies, be it the Tanu Weds Manu franchise or Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein [2001] that found a wide fan base over the decades. Tharki will be the perfect payoff for them, after his intense portrayals in Shaitaan and Rocketry: The Nambi Effect [2022]. In fact, he will also be seen in another romantic comedy, De De Pyaar De 2, but the love story won’t be centred on his character,” adds the source.

Shaikh, meanwhile, also has Anurag Basu’s Metro...In Dino in the pipeline.

It is not a surprise that everyone’s beloved movie Andaz Apna Apna, which celebrated its 30th birthday this week, had no takers when it released. With the exception of Hum Aapke Hain Koun!, 1994 mainly belonged to blood-thirsty action heroes seeking revenge.

Some of the top grossers of that year were Mohra, Krantiveer, Main Khiladi Tu Anari and Suhaag. Rajkumar Santoshi, the director of Andaz Apna Apna, was also coming off Ghayal and Damini, the origin story of Sunny Deol’s famous ‘dhai kilo ka haath’. In the midst of this festival of testosterone came Andaz Apna Apna which cast two superstars — Aamir Khan and Salman Khan — as foolish simpletons who remained foolish till the last frame.

There isn’t an angry bone in the film. This is a world where the hero can’t express his love to a woman because he has loose motions. The bad guy Teja’s grand evil plan is to steal his brother’s diamonds and buy a poultry farm so that he can breed chickens and eat omelettes.

Actor and casting director Abhishek Banerjee (Stree, Paatal Lok) says there is a “middle-class” quality to Andaz Apna Apna which makes it endearing and timeless.

“One of my favourite bits is when the villain asks Amar and Prem (names of Aamir and Salman’s characters, respectively) for a huge ransom and they arrive with a bag of coins because that’s all they have. I remember collecting coins was a rage at the time, and we all had piggy banks. It was so relatable,” says Banerjee.

Admirers of Andaz Apna Apna are often baffled by how Santoshi pulled off such silliness with conviction. How does one in all seriousness come up with lines like ‘Teja main hoon, mark idhar hai’, ‘Aap purush hi nahi, maha purush hai’ or ‘Yeh Vasco Da Gama ki gun hai. Kiske mama ki gun?’

And then there are the legendary stories of the film’s leading actresses Raveena Tandon and Karishma Kapoor being at loggerheads through the filming. At one point, they were tied together for a scene and forced to speak to each other.

Aamir Khan has also admitted that he hated working with Salman who he found to be “rude and inconsiderate”.

“I have also heard these stories. I don’t know how they managed those performances. In fact, I have taken Aamir’s style of repeating everything twice in the film like ‘maine bola tha, maine bola tha’ and used it in my performances,” says Banerjee.

Screenwriter Niren Bhatt (Stree 2, Bhediya) says it was only a few days ago when he met Paresh Rawal, who plays Teja, to discuss an upcoming project. But instead of doing the narration, he spent hours quizzing Rawal about the making of Andaz Apna Apna Hai.

Bhatt explains that the film takes some crazy creative swings that makes it one of a kind.

“All our iconic comedies like Half Ticket or Padosan have been about funny situations. Now suddenly comes a film that breaks all the rules and goes bonkers. It was totally out of the box. Santoshi himself was unable to recreate that madness in his later comedy films,” he says.

About a decade ago, filmmakers Hardik Mehta and Vivek Soni were commissioned by the erstwhile Phantom Films, owned by Anurag Kashyap, Vikas Bahl and Vikamaditya Motwane, to work on a sequel. Their film took off where the original ended, but with a new cast.

“We decided that this time instead of chasing money, Amar and Prem would chase social media fame. And Crime Master Gogo’s new goal was getting his own wax statue at Madame Tussauds. We had written the entire climax inside the museum,” says Mehta, adding that the dream was always going to be “a long shot”. Aamir Khan and Santoshi too have occasionally dropped hints about a sequel.

Bhavik Vora, founder of A47, an online store that sells pop culture merchandise, says he’s the ultimate Andaz Apna Apna super fan. He had watched the film twice on the same day with his friends at Mumbai’s single screen theatre Gaiety Galaxy.

“We have seen it so minutely that we know the little scenes and dialogues that others may have forgotten,” says Vora.

He pursued the producers Vinay Pictures, who own the rights of the film, for three years to let him create the official merchandise. It finally launched this week. He says it was a “pure passion project” to cater to the film’s dedicated online fan community that has kept it alive over three decades through dubsmashes, reels and memes.

Bhatt remembers a time when a director wasn’t understanding his pitch and he borrowed a tactic from the iconic scene where Aamir’s character explains a football match by moving around a bunch of glasses, and unknowingly foils a murder in the process.

“There were too many characters so I had to use that glass strategy. That’s how much the film is a part of our lives,” he laughs. “I would say the film is beyond cult. It’s a cultural phenomenon.”

Twenty two years after its release, the cult classic Andaz Apna Apna is all set to go forward without its original leads, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Raveena Tandon and Karisma Kapoor. Even the director, Rajkumar Santoshi, will not be a part of Part 2. Preeti Sinha, the daughter of producer Vinay Sinha, has given the rights to Phantom Films and will be collaborating with them on the project. Preeti has already joined hands with Phantom on Super 30 mathematician Anand Kumar's biopic.

According to a source close to the development, the film will roll towards the year-end with a fresh cast. "It will be an in-house director at the helm, if not Vikas (Queen and Shaandaar director Vikas Bahl), it will be Vikram (Vikramaditya Motwane of Udaan and Lootera fame)," adds the source.

The original was released in 1994 and revolved around two conmen, Amar and Prem, who are vying to woo and wed a rich heiress, Raveena, little knowing that she is really the secretary, Karishma, who has switched identities with her mistress. In another switch, Raveena's uncle, Shyam/Teja (Paresh Rawal in a double role) passes himself off as his twin Ram to repay his debts to Crime Master Gogo. The comedy of errors ends in a rib-tickling standoff. The boys get their girls, the cops get the criminals and Ram gets his identity back.

After two intense films, Ghayal and Damini, Santoshi scripted this madcap romp with Aamir and Salman as the human Tom and Jerry. Shakti Kapoor landed the role of a lifetime when Tinnu Anand turned down Gogo because of date issues. The actors improvised on the sets and the result was a laugh riot whose appeal hasn't dimmed in two decades.

Despite its endearing popularity, the film hasn't spawned any remakes or sequel. But now a follow-up is on. "The script is locked. It has been developed by Vivek Soni and Hardik Mehta who won a National Award this year for his non-feature film on kite flying in Ahmedabad, Amdavad Ma Famous, under the creative supervision of Vikas. It's a super script and promises loads of fun," the source concludes.