May 25, 2026 10:52am IST
Imtiaz Ali On Modern Romance: ‘People Are More Lost Today Than Ever Before’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Imtiaz Ali’s take on love and romance is different from that of any other filmmaker. It’s not just about unrequited love (Tamasha) or heartbreak and its aftermath (Jab We Met), but about the feeling his characters evoke in the audience when they first fall in love.
But now, times have changed, so have romance and the idea of love. As audiences scroll endlessly through fleeting connections and algorithm-driven attraction, Imtiaz Ali believes the craving for old-school romance has only grown stronger. In a conversation with Variety India around his upcoming film “Main Vapas Aaunga,” the filmmaker reflects on how love stories have evolved on screen, why heartbreak still resonates deeply, and what modern romances are missing today.
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The filmmaker says, “I feel that today more than ever before, there is a need and a craving for the old-fashioned love story. And the audience wants to belong to the era that is past because they feel that everything is so transient, so quick.”
For Ali, the problem with modern relationships is not access but emotional depth. He points to how instant gratification has diluted the mystery and longing that once defined romance.
“How tragic it is that you meet the object of your desire so quickly. You know you’ll 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 affects you. I think this generation of people in the present world is more lost than ever before. They are more in need of something that is long-standing and everlasting than ever before.”
The director, whose work often revolves around emotionally conflicted characters searching for connection, also addressed the changing place of dramatic love stories in mainstream cinema. While acknowledging that the genre may not dominate the way it once did, he believes audiences still deeply yearn for stories that move them emotionally.
“I don’t know whether the genre is dying or not. I don’t think that I’m really the person who should be answering this question. Whether one wants to watch films like that - as an audience, 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.”
Ali says the emotional pull of first love and heartbreak remains timeless, regardless of trends or genre fatigue. “We always want to watch something that gives you that whiff of first love, that tingly feeling, or a heartbreak, or something like a relationship... something that moves you or makes you feel something than just remain on the surface.”
According to him, what audiences miss most today is not spectacle or scale, but sincerity. The feeling of falling helplessly, vulnerably in love for the very first time. He adds, “I feel that most importantly, what we’re all missing is that falling in love for the first time, that feeling... that I think is the most special feeling that you can see on screen and probably feel.”
Imtiaz Ali’s “Main Vaapas Aaunga”, which stars Diljit Dosanjh, Sharvari and Vedang Raina, releases in theatres on June 12.
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