Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali is currently awaiting the release of his film Main Vaapas Aaunga, a love story set during the Partition. During the promotions of the film, Ali revisited some of his old hits, including Jab We Met and Love Aaj Kal, and shared his thoughts on sequels. In a recent interview, when asked about making a sequel to Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor-starrer Jab We Met, the filmmaker said that Sharvari and Vedang Raina would make a good pair for it. However, in another interview, Ali clarified that he is not interested in revisiting the world of Jab We Met himself, though he has no problem with someone else taking it up.

Imtiaz on Jab We Met 2

In a recent chat with Zoom, Imtiaz pointed at Vedang and Sharvari and said, “Why doesn’t someone else make Jab We Met 2 with both of you?”

When asked if he was willing to give up the film, he replied, “100 percent.” He also said that he would not even consider writing the film if someone else agreed to direct it. “Would I write it? No. Someone can make it if they have a story.”

Meanwhile, Vedang said that when Imtiaz recommended his name for Jab We Met 2, he took it with a pinch of salt. “It was a lot to take in. So I thought that somewhere, he must be feeling that if I have to name two actors, it can’t not be from the film that I have just made,” he said with a laugh.

Sharvari, on the other hand, felt that the recommendation was great praise and expressed her love for the film.

Imtiaz laughed along and shared, “I am very enthralled, and I am very excited to find out that my actors have such an opinion about me. Like the first chance they got, they doubted my intelligence and authenticity, and thought that I must have done it to plug the film.”

Imtiaz on Love Aaj Kal 2

While Imtiaz is not a fan of sequels, he did experiment with Love Aaj Kal in 2020. While it was not a direct sequel, he had said that the themes of the film were similar and hence he kept the name. The 2020 version starred Sara Ali Khan and Kartik Aaryan in the lead. Today, he called the film a “useless experiment.” He said that the film was initially not meant to be a franchise and was previously titled Reverse.

“Actually, it is not exciting to do a story for the reason that it’s a commercially viable thing. That’s the wrong way to start something. So I don’t want to do that. Unless there is something that is really pulling me to make a movie, a second part of a movie… Something just comes like that. But I’m not really keen to explore a part two just for the heck of it,” the filmmaker said.

He then elaborated on Love Aaj Kal 2 and said, “In Love Aaj Kal 2, I did that because I already had the story and I was excited about it. It didn’t work- that is a different matter. Love Aaj Kal 2 also told me that this is a useless experiment because it’s not even a viable project if you don’t want to make it. Love Aaj Kal 2 was a story in itself. I could have made it as a different film.”

He further added, “There was a time when I was thinking about making a different story and not calling it Love Aaj Kal 2. I was calling it Reverse. But later on, it was decided that maybe it would be better to call it Love Aaj Kal 2, which was not a big service to the film. The fact that it needs to be a commercially viable, profitable project is not what will keep me excited about it for two years.”