Imtiaz Ali wants to overhaul JWM

Rajeev Masand: Imtiaz, you rebooted the romantic genre with Jab We Met. The main strength of the film is the fact that its characters were so real and relatable and yet so engaging. And most importantly was the fact that those characters spoke like you and me. Dialogue plays a very important role in your films doesn't it?

Imtiaz Ali: Yes. The lack of talent in writing dialogues is responsible for that because I feel that I am an insubstantial dialogue writer. I have always tried to find other people to write dialogue for me, because I all I know is the common language of you and me, so that's all I could do.

Rajeev Masand: I think it's true in both your films - Socha Na Tha and Jab We Met - that the characters speak like everyday people and that is a refreshing change from the movies in which you tend to hear affected and stilted dialogues.

Imtiaz Ali: Socha Na Tha was the victim of a similar accident. I wanted someone else to write the dialogue, but finally I couldn't manage to find someone because of certain reasons so ultimately I had to write it myself.

Rajeev Masand: So these are those happy accidents?

Imtiaz Ali: I hope so.

Rajeev Masand: Explain then, your fascination for these love on the road kind of stories. Love Aajkal too apparently falls in that category.

Imtiaz Ali: Love Aajkal is not really a road movie, but it does involve some travel. It's strange really because I discovered some of myself from the films that I make. I think I am a travel junkie and I have never enjoyed anything else in my life more than travelling and going to places. And I am not talking necessarily about going to exotic places. I'd be happy to go to Ghatkopar you know. So I can never have enough of travel and that finds a way of coming into my films somehow.

Rajeev Masand: You were born and raised in Jamshedpur, where your family owned cinema halls. Tell me, what are your earliest memories of going to the movies?

Imtiaz Ali: My relatives had - and still have - cinema halls in Jamshedpur, Star Talkies, Jamshedpur Talkies and Karim Talkies. As a kid in nickers, I had the liberty of - secretly, without telling my parents - getting inside the cinema halls, because the lightmen and the doorkeepers all knew me. Those are very old, archaic cinema theatres. They have huge screens and a huge capcity. There will be more than 1,000 people in each one of them. They used to smell of paan and tobacco and they were 'air-cooled'. There were no air-conditioners, just fans which sometimes disturbed the screen as well. But there was this great magnificience. I remember when we used to look at the ticket-counter from the terrace, we used to wait for that moment when the gates would open and the people would gush in like a wave to get to the ticket-counters. It is not only that people used to come to watch the film, it was also like an act for them. If they are coming to see an Amitabh Bachchan film, they think they are Amitabh Bachchan. It is that whole aura, that euphoria of being somebody else. The audiences actually at that period of time belonged to that movie. There was also a salon outside the film theatre - it still exists - and a lot of these boys who would come to watch the films would go and get their hair styled before watching the film. So it was like great interesting departure from their existence, which they enjoyed a lot and so did I.

Rajeev Masand: If you could go back and remake Jab We Met, what would you change about the film?

Imtiaz Ali: Everything. I would change everything about Jab We Met. I don't like the film anymore. The screenplay is very faulty at certain times. I don't know a girl going into Decent Hotel will still not realise what she is talking about. In many places I have not directed the actors very well and I especially feel that about Kareena. I know that it has been appreciated and it's great that it has been appreciated. I would never say all this before the film was released, but almost everything in Jab We Met needs an overhaul.

Rajeev Masand: Aren't you glad that the audience doesn't think that way?

Imtiaz Ali: I am very glad.