NEW DELHI: The failure of ‘Break Ke Baad’ to get an audience in spite of two charismatic stars in the lead, has shocked many. Could this be attributed to there being no market for Hindu-Muslim love stories? Barring Mani Ratnam’s Bombay films on this theme have invariably bombed.
But the ‘Break Ke Baad’ director Danish Aslam who is married to a Hindu girl in real life, disagrees. “My movie is not a Hindu-Muslim story. It’s just a love story. According to me in this kind of a love story the protagonists’ religious preference has to be made subtly. That’s what I did with Aliya and Abhay in ‘Break Ke Baad’.
Usually when the protagonists come from different religions, that becomes the central point of conflict. But in my film it’s just love,” he said. There are scenes straight out of debutant director Danish Aslam’s own relationship with his girlfriend-turned-wide Shruti Seth in the movie. For the first time Danish reeling under
the poor collections of his film, admits the relationship between Imran Khan and Deepika Padukone in ‘Break Ke Baad’ is quite prominently borrowed from his own life experiences with Shruti…except that Danish’s life replicates that of the film’s heroine Aliya , played by Deepika! Laughs the director, “I am quite like Aliya, though not as badly behaved like her. Like her I wanted to experience everything in life before getting married. My wife who was then my girlfriend, thought I was quite headstrong and foolish.
But we all go through these crazy phases. Unless we undertake the journey ourselves how can we be happy with where we are in life?” It is this realization that gave birth to Danish’s debut film. ‘Break Ke Baad’ has opened to surprisingly low collections in many centres. Danish is surprised but unfazed “I made the film that I wanted to. It will always be precious to me. Those who have seen it have loved it.
I am hoping the volume of attendance will increase. If not, there’s always a second film.” Have the comparisons to another debutant director Punit Malhotra’s ‘I Hate Luv Storys’ spoilt Danish’s film’s chances? The debutant director is sure of his Danish delight. “I was warned about my film being similar to ‘I Hate Luv Storys’.
But when I saw ‘I Hate Luv Storys’ I was relieved. There isn’t a single similarity between the two.” Danish is now planning another love story. “This time about a more mature couple. Maybe Aliya and Abhay ten years after the film ends.”
