Team Café
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
Fans of ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ have a reason to be excited, as Zoya Akhtar has confirmed that work on a possible sequel is underway. Fifteen years after the Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar and Abhay Deol-starrer released in theatres, the filmmaker revealed that she is developing the follow-up with her longtime collaborator Reema Kagti. Speaking during the Monsoon Film Festival, Zoya said, “We are on it,” while stressing that the sequel will only take shape if the story feels authentic to where the characters are in their lives today. “We don’t know what will happen and what won’t…if we will get to a place where it feels correct, in catching up with these characters today. But it will be nice,” she said.
Released in 2011, ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ was helmed by Zoya Akhtar and backed by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani under Excel Entertainment. The story centred on three school friends, Arjun, Kabir and Imran, who set off on a three-week road trip across Spain as part of Kabir’s bachelor party. Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar and Abhay Deol played the lead roles, with Katrina Kaif, Kalki Koechlin and Naseeruddin Shah also featuring in key roles.
Farhan Akhtar has also sparked speculation about another possible remake, after reflecting on how he would approach ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ if he were to direct the film today. Released 25 years ago, the film struck a chord with an entire generation through its fresh aesthetic, sharp writing and distinctive visual style. More than just a coming-of-age story, ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ went on to influence the landscape of Hindi cinema while presenting a fresh perspective on adult relationships.
Looking back at the film after 25 years, Farhan Akhtar reflected on one aspect of ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ that he would approach differently as a director today. He specifically pointed to the way Aamir Khan and Preity Zinta’s relationship was resolved, particularly the wedding sequence. “Now enough time has passed for me to think of one thing that I would change, or maybe two, actually, that I would do differently. One is, I would probably resolve the Aamir and Preity’s relationship slightly differently from how I did. I feel that the drama of that moment is effective, of course, in the film, but I feel maybe the drama was a little bit overplayed in the way I constructed it, completely as a director. I feel I constructed it a little bit away from the drama of the rest of the film. So, for me, it stands out a little bit, the wedding scene. So maybe I would do that a little bit differently, in terms of not pitching it so high on drama, like the way it was.”
Farhan also reflected on Sid, played by Akshaye Khanna, and said he might have chosen to end the character’s journey without a romantic possibility. At the end of the film, Sid, who has come to terms with Tara’s (Dimple Kapadia) death, is seen alongside another woman, hinting at a possible new relationship. However, Farhan now feels that Sid did not need that conventional suggestion of a happy ending. “I think I would have left Sid alone at the end. I think that giving that little hope of a happy ending for his life, he was happy regardless, which I think about now, then maybe he didn’t need to see one girl at the end and think that there’s, you know, maybe there’s some pot of gold at the end of this rainbow for him.”
