Imtiaz Ali says She ‘surprised’ the viewers: ‘If my characters are allowed to change, why can’t I?’

“If my characters are allowed to change, why can’t I,” asks filmmaker Imtiaz Ali, arguing that he wouldn’t have been in a position to write the darkish and brooding She with out the bubbling Jab We Met.

The second season of She, which explores the seamy underbelly of Mumbai by way of the eyes of a cop who discovers her sexuality and confidence whereas working undercover as a intercourse employee, returned for a second season on Netflix on Friday. And the comparisons along with his earlier movies, together with Socha Na Tha, Tamasha, and Highway, are inevitable.

“I got a lot of response for She pointing in the direction that people didn’t expect it. They were surprised but almost all of the response was positive. Stories like She and Highway have been written long before, it is just that others came before,” Ali instructed PTI in a Zoom interview.

He remembers effectively his first “light story” that went on to develop into his first movie too – Socha Na Tha — and is completely satisfied he is ready to swap tracks and has one thing to say in different, darker spheres as effectively.

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The director mentioned you will need to transfer between two extremes in genres with out shedding one’s steadiness.

“It’s not that Imtiaz Ali of Jab We Met wouldn’t have written She. Quite the opposite actually. If my characters are allowed to change, why am I not? Of course, there will be a change in the way I write, but I feel She would not have been possible without Jab We Met. I feel these are connected,” Ali mentioned.

The second season of She, fronted by Aaditi Pohankar, is directed by Ali’s brother Arif Ali and produced by Viacom 18 Studios’ Tipping Point and Window Seat Films. It sees the protagonist discover her newfound confidence and sexuality. She is certain by obligation to the police pressure but in addition struggles together with her attraction in the direction of drug lord and murderer Nayak.

According to Ali, the second season will see his central character Bhumi undergo a extra inner journey. “There are two things as themes in this season, one of them is the seduction of darkness, we even have a theme music for it. There are certain very relieving qualities about darkness, about sin and about being wrong. It sets her free in multiple ways. The second theme, which I found interesting, is that sometimes in life survival becomes a choice. You’ve got to choose whether you want to survive or not. And in the second season Bhumi decides to survive.” The story of She got here to Ali whereas he was strolling the “streets of infamy” in Hong Kong.

“…this idea of the big bad world of the underworld, prostitution and authorities mixing together in the narrow alleys of a big city like Mumbai. Also, the idea of intimacy in a dangerous situation like that and female power. I wanted to discover it from the inside of a woman’s mind rather than to objectify her…,” Ali mentioned.

The first season of the present was trending within the top-10 most watched reveals in India forward of the second season premiere. This, Ali mentioned, makes him really feel like he’s a part of a neighborhood the place each the makers and the viewers are trying ahead to the identical factor.

“It is gratifying that an OTT show has legacy value. If you make something you know that it can be viewed almost 20-30 years later. This is not the feeling one gets in TV. It is kind of disconcerting that a show runs only once on TV. It used to be said to TV directors like myself, ‘Whatever you do, this is a picture with one show. So don’t work too hard on it’,” Ali mentioned recalling his preliminary years in tv. Unlike TV, the director mentioned, an OTT present has “almost limitless shelf life.”

“Some people are watching She for the first time, some are rewatching the show… Shows like Narcos have been discovered around the world in different years. So a show that does not do well for the first couple of years might strike gold in the third or fourth year. It is gratifying to a filmmaker to know that if you make something, it has the potential to be discovered later by the audience.”