It's
while
travelling
that
all
of
Imtiaz
Ali's
characters
undergo
a
life-altering
experience
but
the
director
says
his
next
won't
involve
travel,
which
would
be
a
change
for
him.
Right
from
his
debut,
Socha
Na
Tha,
where
Viren
and
Aditi
travel
to
Goa
and
fall
in
love,
to
his
last,
where
Harry
and
Sejal
realise
they
are
meant
to
be
together
while
searching
for
a
ring
in
Europe,
journeys
have
been
an
integral
part
of
Imtiaz's
films.
His
next
reunites
him
with
his
Jab
We
Met
actor,
Shahid
Kapoor
and
the
director
is
tight-lipped
about
the
project.
In
an
interview
with
PTI,
Imtiaz
says,
"The
film
is
a
human
story.
It's
in
one
place.
If
I
can
tell
you
one
thing,
it
would
be
that
it
is
not
a
travel-oriented
film,
which
is
a
good
thing
for
me,
it
will
be
different
for
me."
Imtiaz
says
while
he
did
discuss
the
film
with
Shahid,
nothing
is
official
yet.
"It's
not
really
decided
(when
the
movie
goes
on
floors),
even
the
casting
isn't
decided
yet.
Shahid
and
I
have
met
and
spoken
about
it
but
it's
not
as
if
we
have
decided
and
signed
anything
at
all.
There's
nothing
officially
planned
about
it," he
says.
For
Imtiaz,
the
decision
to
base
his
films
in
a
certain
city
comes
very
much
at
the
scripting
stage.
His
breakthrough
Jab
We
Met,
for
instance,
could've
been
based
in
Rajasthan
too,
but
the
director
says
the
reason
to
shift
it
to
Punjab
was
natural.
"With
me,
it
has
always
been
at
an
early
stage
where
I
figure
out
a
city,
state
or
a
country
I'd
like
the
story
in.
While
I
was
writing
Jab
We
Met-
where
there
was
a
girl
on
the
train
-
I
kept
asking
questions
to
myself,
that
she's
speaking
in
a
certain
way
and
is
going
to
a
certain
location,
which
was
from
Mumbai
to
Delhi."
"So
it
had
to
be
somewhere
over
there.
It
could've
been
Rajasthan,
which
I
was
earlier
thinking.
But
the
way
she
spoke,
I
felt
she's
a
Punjabi
girl.
That's
why
it
went
to
Punjab."
Just
as
much
his
characters,
the
cities
in
the
backdrop
form
an
important
part
of
Imtiaz's
films
-
be
it
Ved
and
Tara
bonding
in
Corsica
in
Tamasha
or
Rockstar's
Jordan
who
spirals
down
on
the
path
of
self-destruction
post
reuniting
with
Heer
in
Prague.
"For
Corsica
or
Prague,
they
stayed
while
I
was
writing
the
initial
screenplay
of
these
films.
I
had
neither
been
to
Prague
nor
had
I
gone
to
Corsica
or
Bhatinda
when
I
wrote
about
them
but
I
had
an
impression
of
these
places,
largely
from
the
pictures
I
had
seen
or
from
what
people
might've
told
me."
"Or
historical
details,
whether
the
bombings
had
flattened
Prague
or
not
-
it
wasn't
flat
earlier-
and
so
I
went.
When
I
go
to
these
cities,
I
take
them
in
my
script
as
well
and
work
the
screenplay
around
them," he
adds.
At
the
recently
concluded
FICCI
Frames,
Imtiaz
had
mentioned
a
script
which
he
had
written
about
two
countries.
When
asked
what
the
film
is
about,
the
46-year-old
director
says,
"There
is
something
about
displacement
there.
It
is
about
two
cultures,
about
the
obvious
differences
between
them
but
also
similarities.
It's
a
character
which
crossed
from
one
to
the
other.
So
I
felt
India
and
China
could
be
interesting."
While
it's
"another
story"
why
the
movie
couldn't
materialise
yet,
Imtiaz
says
his
scripts
which
do
not
turn
into
films
stay
with
him,
and
become
a
"part
of
me".
"Sometimes,
they
merge
into
other
stories,
become
a
part
of
several
films,
on
their
own.
That
also
happens.
But
they
never
leave,"
he
adds.PTI