Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali recently spoke about the failure of Love Aaj Kal 2 (2020), the spiritual sequel to his 2009 film Love Aaj Kal starring Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone. While the original made about Rs 120 crore at the box office and was also lauded by the critics, the sequel, starring Kartik Aaryan and Sara Ali Khan, was a critical and commercial dud.

In an interview with Zoom, Imtiaz opened up on the folly and called the film a “useless experiment.”

“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 made me realise 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,” he said.

Imtiaz revealed that initially he wanted to call the film Reverse, but eventually decided to name the film Love Aaj Kal, which may have actually harmed it. “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 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 fact that it needs to be a commercially viable, profitable project is not what will keep me excited for it for two years,” the filmmaker added.

In the same interview, Imtiaz admitted that it is not “exciting” to do a film solely because it is “commercially viable”, which is why he stayed away from making sequels for so long.

The filmmaker’s next, Main Vaapas Aaunga, is a romantic drama set during the Partition. The film stars Vedang Raina, Sharvari, Diljit Dosanjh, and Naseeruddin Shah. It is scheduled to release on June 12.