Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali has openly spoken about the failure of Love Aaj Kal and admitted that connecting the movie to the original franchise may have been a mistake. The director revealed that the film was initially planned as a completely separate project titled Reverse before it was later linked to the Love Aaj Kal series.
Released in 2020, the film starred Sara Ali Khan and Kartik Aaryan in lead roles. However, after its release, the movie received heavy criticism from audiences and critics. Many viewers were unhappy with the screenplay, performances and emotional depth of the film.
During a recent interview with Zoom, Imtiaz Ali spoke about sequels and franchise films. He explained that he does not believe in making second parts only for commercial success. According to him, this approach did not work in the case of Love Aaj Kal 2.
Speaking about it, Imtiaz said, “Actually, it is not exciting to do a story for the reason that it’s a commercially viable thing. That’s a 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 further admitted that Love Aaj Kal 2 became an unsuccessful experiment for him. He 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 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 a different story.”
Imtiaz Ali also revealed that the film was originally supposed to have a different title. He shared, “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 original Love Aaj Kal starring Deepika Padukone and Saif Ali Khan had received a positive response when it released in 2009.
Imtiaz Ali is now preparing for his upcoming film Main Vaapas Aaunga starring Diljit Dosanjh, Naseeruddin Shah, Sharvari and Vedang Raina.