''Jab We Met'' is my most rejected script: Imtiaz Ali

NEW DELHI: "Jab We Met" was a story Imtiaz Ali wrote just to entertain himself, and he never thought it will be a "good enough" film to make. But the 2007 hit proved him monstrously wrong, as well as all the naysayers who rejected its script as silly.

The Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor starrer, about two diametrically opposite strangers who meet in a train and develop an unlikely friendship that much later turns into love, is still remembered for its sparkling one-liners, music and the story.

As a new director struggling to make his mark, Ali recalled how it took him a long time to complete his debut film "Socha Na Tha", starring Ayesha Takia and Abhay Deol. It was while shooting the film that he wrote "Jab We Met" during periods of inactivity.

But even while shooting "Jab We Met" in Punjab, the director said he continued to be plagued by self doubt, unsure if the shoot would happen the next day.

"And this was a story that I wasn't even very proud of, honestly. I wrote this script just to entertain myself. I never thought this film was good enough to be made. It was just my personal toy, so to speak," Ali told PTI during a visit to its headquarters in Delhi, breaking down what it takes to write his stories.

After writing the story, he was too embarrassed to narrate it. And when he did narrate it, "believe me, this movie got rejected by producers and actors more than any other movie of mine", the director said.

Asked what they found wrong with the script, Ali listed a number of reactions that he encountered as he travelled around pitching the story to producers.

"‘What is this movie about?’, ‘What is it achieving?’, ‘There is no conflict’, ‘And it's quite silly actually the things that are happening in this film’, ‘Why will they accept Shahid Kapoor's character in the end?’.... This was getting rejected a lot."

Ali said the first person who actually believed in the story was actor Preity Zinta.

"It took a long time for 'Jab We Met' to find its cast. I had narrated it one time to Preity Zinta ... she was the first person who liked this story, this script."

Zinta could not be cast eventually as the making of the film got delayed and Ali went back to his original choice, Kareena Kapoor.

When Ali read the script to Zinta, she burst out laughing at the point where Shahid's character Aditya runs away from Geet at the railway station.

"And I thought she's laughing at me. And I got a little awkward about it. And then she just looked at me and said, 'This is really fun'. I asked her, ‘Are you liking it?’ She said, ‘I'm loving it. What happens next?’ And I thought, 'man, there's someone who actually likes this'."

Ali himself wrote the script and all the dialogues, including the many memorable one-liners.

Like the one where Geet catches a running train and bashfully and loudly tells the passenger who helped her get in -- as well as the rest of the coach: "Ab toh mera haath chor do… Itni bhi sundar nahi hoon main". Sustaining her non-stop prattle, she later declares confidently, "Main apni favourite hoon!" or 'Bachpan se hi na mujhe shaadi karne ka bahut craze hai, by god!"

It was not just Geet's lines. Many other dialogues from the film have become part of the vocabulary of film lovers. When, for instance, an irritated Aditya tells Geet, "Tumhe uthakar museum mein rakhna chahiye… ticket lagni chahiye tumhe dekhne ke liye”. Or when a befuddled Anshuman, Geet's one-time boyfriend, tells Aditya, "Kyun dekhoon main ganne ke khet?"

Ali said the lines were written while he was stuck in a hotel room in Manali during heavy snowfall. He never could go back to revise or have another look as they had to begin production in just 21 days.

"Actually, the whole dialogue draft, so to speak, was written because we had gone for our only recce, the location scout. We had gone to Manali and as luck would have it, it snowed out and we were trapped in a hotel. And the whole day, I had to be in the hotel and I couldn't get out of my room.

"So I had to just sit and write the dialogues. I was feeling so terrible that there wasn't much time. In that one night and one day, I wrote all the dialogues. And I didn't look back and see if it was right or wrong. I just kept writing and writing."

Both Kareena and Shahid stood out with their performance in the film.

Ali credits Kareena's natural acting for making Geet memorable.

"She's a very instinctive actor. She is a director's delight. She has no process and one has to be careful in directing her because she doesn't take time to process at all. Whatever one tells her to do, she does it quickly and does it with full force.

"I had to actually find ways of restraining her, holding her back, so to speak, and making sure that I don't miscommunicate with her ever. Because if I tell her something wrong, she will do that something wrong. And she will do it with so much force and vigour that it will be difficult to then bring her back to zero and start again."

Will he cast Kareena in another film?

"I would love to cast Kareena again in a film and I will. And, hopefully, it will be something that's worthwhile doing after Geet. Something that is very different from what she was in that film. Hopefully, something which is equally effervescent and vivacious," Ali said.