Imtiaz Ali And Sara Ali Khan On The Love Aaj Kal Trailer Backlash

The trailer for the new Love Aaj Kal opened to mixed reactions. Between the title being the same as Imtiaz Ali's 2009 film and a few poorly received lines of dialogue in the trailer, the film's first look has received a fair amount of backlash.  Sara Ali Khan, in particular, has faced many strong reactions to some of her scenes in the trailer – particularly when she says the line 'tum mujhe tang karne lage ho' which has inspired a healthy supply of memes.

We spoke to both writer-director Imtiaz Ali and lead Sara Ali Khan about the extreme reactions, the rationale behind giving the film the same title and how it relates to its predecessor.

Imtiaz Ali On Whether The New Love Aaj Kal Is A Remake, Reboot or Reimagining

"So we had a lot of fun trying to decide the title for this film. The constant refrain and the reason for making it was – if Love Aaj Kal was made today then this would be the story. So it is the Love Aaj Kal of aaj and we wanted to coin that into a title and the most obvious title was only Love Aaj Kal. Not 'Love Aaj Kal 2' because it's not a sequel, the story is different, everything is different but the central concept remains the same which is two stories in different eras interact with each other and somehow also influence each other. I didn't want to call it 'Love Aaj Kal Reboot' because then it would sound like Fast and Furious but it is that in essence.

My working title was Reverse because the procedure has reversed and it's fascinating but the distributors didn't let me so many people have called it Love Aaj Kal 2 or Love Aaj Kal 2020 but my view is God has many names yet God remains the same and so does this."

Imtiaz Ali On The Memes The Trailer Has Inspired

"I hunger for those memes (laughs), I love them. But they didn't put me off because even though some of the comments were negative, it felt as though people were invested in it and it mattered to them. And some of the memes were really funny. My favourite was a comment about me saying, 'Ever since Socha Na Tha, he's making the same story again and again and this time he has even named it the same' (laughs). There's another great one that was, 'The eco-friendly award goes to Imtiaz Ali for recycling the same plot over and over again'."

Sara Ali Khan On That One Specific Line 'Tum Mujhe Tang Karne Lage Ho'

"You know, we weren't allowed to see the monitor. I had no idea what it was looking like. I've spoken to Imtiaz sir about this and I think what's also happened is that I don't look good in that. When it comes to people trolling and saying I'm overacting, I'll be honest with you, every day on set not only was I acutely aware of what my character had to feel but Imtiaz sir made me feel exactly what Zoe was to feel at that point. Now that is Imtiaz sir's vision and my attempt, so that was not a ham shot on our part.

I was really crying and I did what came to me organically at that time and I think that somewhere down the line maybe it's because I didn't look pretty during that shot and the archetype of the heroine is that she always has to look good regardless of what she's doing. So maybe it's that. Some people have said it's because it's a low angle shot where my mouth was looking bad, others have said it's because it's cut in the middle of the scene so they people haven't seen the context. But the truth is it's something that part of the audiences haven't liked but I think there's only learning from here and here's hoping that there are parts of me in the film that they do like."