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Did Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘influence’ compromise Imtiaz Ali's vision for Jab Harry Met Sejal? Director addresses rumors
Recently, director Imtiaz Ali opened up about Jab Harry Met Sejal and shared that Shah Rukh Khan never took control of anything for the movie. Read on to know more!
Imtiaz Ali's 2017 romantic comedy Jab Harry Met Sejal, featuring Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma, did not perform as expected at the box office. The filmmaker, who both directed and wrote the film, recently responded to speculation about whether Shah Rukh Khan’s star power influenced his creative vision for the project. He shared that 'Shah Rukh Khan never imposed himself on the film and admitted that he didn't consider Khan's scale of stardom while writing the script.'
In an interview with GQ India, Imtiaz Ali was asked about the rumours suggesting that Shah Rukh Khan took control of Jab Harry Met Sejal, potentially altering Ali's original vision for the film. He firmly denied these claims, stating that they were completely untrue.
He said, “Shah Rukh never imposed himself on the film. But he is a huge star with an enormous fan base. He has a lot of expectations to fulfil and I wasn’t writing to serve that. I did not consider the scale of his stardom," said Imtiaz Ali.
The filmmaker further discussed potential changes that could have been made to the film's script. He explained that certain elements need to be included in the script to make it work while ensuring that the soul of the film remains intact.
He mentioned that with Jab Harry Met Sejal, greater clarity regarding the character's desires was needed. He suggested that the film benefited from additional exposition, possibly some flashbacks, and a more traditional structure.
Earlier, in an interview with Mid-Day, Imtiaz Ali had shared that sometimes a film doesn’t perform as expected, but that doesn’t necessarily mean everything about the film was wrong.
He reflected that with Jab Harry Met Sejal, he aimed to become more ‘accessible and common,’ only to later realize that this approach didn’t align with his style. He emphasized that filmmakers should focus on making the films they genuinely want to create.
In Jab Harry Met Sejal, Shah Rukh Khan portrayed Harinder Singh Nehra, a Punjabi man, while Anushka Sharma played Sejal Parikh, a Gujarati woman. The film marked their third collaboration following Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Jab Tak Hai Jaan.
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