Imtiaz Ali & Sharvari on ‘Main Vaapas Aaunga’, Love Stories, Diljit Dosanjh & Alia Bhatt | Spotlight

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]I want to time travel a bit and take you to the point where you both discovered each other.

[00:00:07]>> That sounds very suspicious.

[00:00:11]>> India and Shvari, welcome to Variety India.

[00:00:13]>> And I saw you talking in Marati very nicely and there were a lot of people and you were chattering on and I thought uh she's from the real world and >> oh wow you saw a Marathi interview.

[00:00:24]>> Marathi interview that is what impressed me. So for me the first demon of the has come and said he said something on the lines of I'm right here and I will watch you or something like that and I thought he means like I'll watch I'm there for you know like yeah like I'll watch over. I sit on my spot and he's actually sitting there watching me. So I'm thinking to myself my first three takes that oh does he mean he's watching me? You know I really wish Vidang was here to give more inputs on this. Nadu was writing, "Kiss Miss Yara, this sounds really ridiculous and very immature. Let's put it in."

[00:01:01]>> Like, should I give him this? Should I bring She's got that thing going on. You know, >> that is true.

[00:01:08]>> Like, oh my god. Like, she's completely rolled me over. Was there a moment like that?

[00:01:12]>> No one's asked you this question. I'm very >> Mine has to be his film in the theater.

[00:01:24]So for sure I think highway no jab of course jab was I think >> were you born when jab met released you were okay fine just checking >> no I was and then of course I repeatedly watched it on television that I remember very well uh and then highway I know I watch with my school friends >> I saw your interview in Marathi >> really >> somewhere somehow >> yes >> and someone told me this is the new girl who's acting and people are talking about and all of that and I saw you talking in Marati very nicely and there were a lot of people and you were chattering on and I thought uh she's from the real world and yeah and then I met you next when we met in at the office.

[00:02:09]>> Yeah, when you met at the office oh wow you saw my Marati interview >> Marati interview that is what impressed me.

[00:02:16]>> I've grown up speaking Marati. It's actually my first language. No, she's very proud of her Marathi heritage and va and the food and all of that. I've even I've heard a lot of stories about that and I have been the happy recipient of a lot of food from there as well because her mother is a very kind person and I hope it runs in the family too.

[00:02:35]But she sent a lot of food which is very very good and I'm trying to discover the Marathi cuisine through my connect.

[00:02:46]It's actually my first call is always to my parents and I was very excited. Um I was I mean you know there's always this anticipation and excitement when you know that there's a film getting made and uh you're able to meet the maker of the film and I think that that makes you feel like okay maybe maybe you know so you don't really know when you're actually coming but then I think that uh I was hoping and I was praying all my way like from home to here and uh yeah the first person I called was my mom and she was very excited for me. Um, I've wanted to be a part of a love story for a really long time and it's it's a genre that I have not done before. Actually, it's the first time that I'm doing an out and-out love story in that sense.

[00:03:28]Um, and of course, like you said, like it's everybody. In fact, you know, we've discovered this multiple times in interviews that I have said's name in many interviews like there are people coming and saying this to me saying, "Oh, how are you manifesting these things?"

[00:03:45]There was a spirit which was very like Jia.

[00:03:49]Um there was a certain face which was very like what a face could have been in the 1940s in India. There was a pristine look. There's a everlasting kind of a look. I don't want to praise her too much in my presence.

[00:04:07]>> I don't want it to get too red. when I was waiting for you to say this line >> but yeah I I no I felt that for instance have you seen songs like Miran nam chin chun chu and very old Indian movies where girls are dancing in a western way they have a certain face or even like you see Madubala's face or actresses of that era or or before that they had a certain look so I was definitely looking for a person that looks like that uh So she just fit the bill because she has that look, that appearance and and also since I had seen the Marathi interview, I knew that she had a kind of a relatability and a chatteriness which was coming from her personality and I knew that Gia would be very good in that like that like an active brain classic look >> she could carry.

[00:05:07]you know, I really wish Vidang was here to give more inputs on this, but uh I so the one thing obviously that was peculiar was that obviously sir doesn't sit on the monitor and he's right next to the camera and I have not worked with directors before who would not be behind a monitor or a showun. Um so for me the first demon of the has come and said he said something on the lines of uh don't worry I'm right here and I will watch you or something like that and I thought he means like you know like I'll watch I'm there for you know like yeah like I'll watch over you and then I sit on my spot and he's actually sitting there watching me. So I'm thinking to myself my first three takes that oh does he mean he's watching me? And then I was like, okay, I think that's what he means. So I I was like, tune this out.

[00:05:58]Tune this out. But but actually, honestly, I got very used to it. Very used to the fact that he was he and that's what Vidang and I always thought that he was really a part of the conversation. Like he was not away from what was happening. Like we felt like he was a part of the scene. So he kind of saw things that maybe the camera was not catching, but he caught them. So it was it was nice for him to help us you know build that more.

[00:06:24]>> I can't watch on the monitor. Um I think it comes from theater because in theater we always look at the actors performing directly and I tried it when I was doing television but then ultimately I was running around so much between where the monitor was and where the actors were because every time I was at the monitor I felt my TV just say I'm not connected to this so I can do a critique but I can't contribute.

[00:06:51]So I because you know I would tell something like why don't you just come quickly to the mark but I don't I don't see this table here because in the close-up I can only see your mid so I can't really help you know so there's a distance that I felt between me and what was going on and basically theater adi so I just preferred watching directly she has a sparkiness when she's talking on camera, off camera, and she has this brain, this mind that works in a certain way. And uh she has a her uh nervousnesses and her confidences. And she's a certain she's also the kind of person that u can come on the mic and make an announcement and be the master of ceremony. She can be the best master of ceremony. Like if it were up to me, this trailer event that you're talking about, actually, I was proposing her name to be the master of ceremony. She's that person. She was >> you know she's a front bencher she's an inquisitive mind she feels like she was nervous when she told us how she was nervous to meet Diljit for the first time and then what happened so there is that energy that keeps on so I feel that happens in many ways because she's the person who can second guess or double think also like should I give him this should I bring she's got that thing going on you know so >> that is true >> so I I noticed that from time to time, you know, that she's being that way and I really enjoy that. I don't create that situation. Thank God. Not yet.

[00:08:32]>> Well, this is also a very personal journey for him.

[00:08:35]>> This is perhaps closer to Biljit Dos than Chamila was >> this person that he's playing.

[00:08:41]>> Um, well, he's just I just felt that it he can he does not lie in performance.

[00:08:47]He doesn't pretend. He's just there. He feels a certain way. It just comes out like that. And he keeps his himself very pure and uh his life is not that of an actor. His demands or his self-image is not that of an actor, right? So he's not in the regiment of an actor. So he's free from that. He's taken advantages from that. And I feel that that's what I realized about him this time that he is who he is and or at least that's what he thinks he is and he's just there and he just does it and there is there is no process he tries to be process free he tries to keep it real he tries to keep it simple these are the three things that I also realized while he was doing chunkila but more strengthened the now >> so when I watched the film uh because there are not many scenes that I have with Nasir Sar or Dja but when I watched the film I remember the first thing that I said to Indasa was that there's just something in his eyes that is just so honest and pure you know and in and you and it's in any scene like it could be a mundane scene it could be an emotional scene it could be a funny scene could be any scene like he could be drinking coffee and you would still just feel like there's something so real about him. Whatever he does, I just felt like I couldn't take my eyes off his eyes, you know, and and I kept feeling that in every scene that I saw that they were just so honest. And I I think that that is one of the most incredible things that I obviously got to see because I guess when we were reading, I also had in mind how things would like when I was reading the script, how it would be versus when I saw it and I was like, he's just incredible. like it's simple and it's not complicated but it's so real and from the heart that you actually see you know like people who smile from their eyes like there's that thing where everybody says I just feel like he every emotion you see it in his eyes >> I chiefly write it I write the songs into the film so there is song number one and blah blah blah scene number 37 song number two follows that etc because the story is kind of going forward so it's mostly written in the screenplay like for this one there are ultimately seven songs but five were written in and two came later so it's usually in conception that the song is there >> my personal favorite song in the film uh now it's going to sound like I'm taking my own song but it's not but but to be fair it is Mascara because we had such a great time shooting it and the other song that I really like was called Hammon but it is now called >> Ishk Mastana >> Ishk Mastana so there's a song that I really like which is called Ishk Mastana which are the two songs that I really enjoyed while shooting and I think that the the melody part of actually what Vedang sung his one of the best like it it really is beautiful and we were all obsessed with that song we were listening to it on loop and I remember that even when I when we finished shoot and we came back here and I started another film My my hair and makeup team was like, "Oh, can you please play Kissmiara?

[00:12:10]What is this?" And I was very happy. But we started calling that song Kissmara.

[00:12:15]>> Because that's how it begins. Kiss Miss Yara. We were just being so silly when it was writing. Kiss Miss Yara. This sounds really ridiculous and very immature. Let's put it in. See, it worked with your team. Please tell them.

[00:12:27]>> No, it did. And you know, I remember I asked you what does this mean? And if told me that it it's it's gibberish, right?

[00:12:34]in a way but it's also kiss miss you know it's like so silly >> yeah so I remember that it just that thing stuck with me and I remember many times talking to sir and we used to discuss this and say so it's like that kissara feeling so we kind of gave it we gave a feeling a a word and I think yeah like an adjective and so for me I think that will always be very special >> yeah I feel that today more than ever before there is a need and a craving for the old-fashioned love story and they want to belong to the era that is passed because they feel that everything is so transient so quick and how tragic it is that you meet the object of your desire so quickly. You know you reach the destination so soon then the bloody real travel begins. Then the confusion begins and then what begins is a search for something that means something something that affects you. I think this generation or people in the present world are more lost than ever before.

[00:13:40]They are more in the need for something which is longstanding and everlasting than ever before.

[00:13:51]>> I don't know about whether the genre is dying or not. I don't think that I'm really the person who should be answering this question but uh but whether one wants to watch films like that yeah for sure as an audience I think uh I and I'm only basing this answer on myself and a couple of my school friends who constantly say that we want to watch love stories um I think bases that yeah I think we're always like wanting to watch something that gives you that like you know first love tingly feeling or a heartbreak so to speak or or something like a like a relationship like something that just make moves you you know in some way makes you feel something but I feel that most importantly I think what what we're all missing I feel is that that falling in love for the first time feeling you know that I think is the most special feeling that you can see on screen and probably feel and uh that I think is exciting >> it she's the same person She was always the same. I've seen her even before I started shooting Highway obviously and she is always so straight from the heart you know and uh I remember the time that I had given her the story to read and she was very young you know and everybody was very suspicious about whether she'd be able to do it but somehow I had seen her and then I said will you read this story so she read it and then I said you call me after reading she said I'll call you tomorrow she didn't call all of the next day and Then uh then she didn't call me the next day as well. So then at night or in the evening I called her and uh so she said hi sir I said uh did you read the story?

[00:15:35]So she said yeah I read it I read it last night only when you gave me I read it immediately then I read it a few more times. So I said did you not like it? So she said I loved it. The way love happened through her was so much heart that I still remember how she said it. That's her performance. It comes out so with her heart. She's so connected. That is the basis of her technique as an artist.

[00:16:08]That is the basis of her personality. I feel in the in highway it's a I don't feel people become more mature with age personally but she was always that person that could sense feel understand all the complexities the layers of human behavior. She doesn't even think of them as layers or complexities. She thinks this is how it feels and then she can emote it very well. and uh that's a gift that she's just been born with.

[00:16:42]>> I only got to know her of course when I started my journey with her uh for alpha and we've had a long extensive journey of this film um from obviously prep to shooting to now obviously when the film is releasing. I think that the best way to say this is that I found a friend in her. Was I expecting that? I don't know because I was always this fan girl for Aliyia, you know. So I I didn't think that I would say that I would call Alia and ask for help. I never thought I would be able to. So when it started I was very starruck but like I guess like sir said she just doesn't have that personality wherein she'll allow someone to be too. she just becomes friends with you and she just makes sure that you're on the same team as her and um and I had an incredible time because it's one so exciting to see a performer like her so up close every single day go see the process for it then ask help get help so that entire journey I feel like um has definitely made me actually an even bigger fan girl of aliyas if not less you know not and I I think I only had that for the performer that she is. I think I have that more so for the person that she is now. And I'm very very excited to actually uh speak about Alpha more when I'm actually sitting next to her and like really sharing more stories.

[00:18:08]>> I think vulnerability is a very dramatic cinematic quantity. If used well, it can be the basis of something very very attractive to people because it's full of conflict. Vulnerability is such a powerful emotion. The hyper masculine is also I think a result of vulnerability.

[00:18:31]You know, uh I feel the great thing about human behavior is that it is opposites reside together with each other. often times the absence of something is the presence of it and that's also a bit like how a film is. Uh but I think uh vulnerability is the most important one of the most important quantities in cinema.

[00:18:58]>> I read this somewhere so maybe I'm not quoting it right but that just spoke to me so I'm going to say it. It says something on the lines of that that I don't have a favorite place. I actually have my favorite people and I think that wherever my favorite people are is home for me. So I think that's what I really feel.

[00:19:15]>> Well, my home I think is 31 Flower Mill Road, Jamshitpur.

[00:19:20]It's the house I grew up in and the first house that I ever had that I lived in. I remember every time I think of home, I think of that place. Every time I think of myself, I think as the kid that was there.