Imtiaz Ali's JAB WE MET opens today globally and is undoubtedly the hot favorite for cine goers. Notwithstanding Shahid-Kareena split news, the film seems to having number of its own merits like genuinely exciting promos, hit music, fresh appeal in story telling and some very good visuals. Joginder Tuteja catches up with Imtiaz Ali who seems to be all set to win hearts again after SOCHA NA THA.

JAB WE MET looks different. But how different is it eventually from a routine love story?
The film is a travel story. It's about two people who do not know each other and meet on a train. In fact neither was there any reason for the two to come together nor was the two supposed to be meeting each other after their train journey got over.

Doesn't the same happen in real life too?
Yes, it does. Also, you are a different person when you are with strangers on a journey. This is what happens in JAB WE MET. Journey of two different people starts on a train, moves to road and travels through places in Punjab and Manali while coming across all kind of people. In fact there are around 20 modes of transportation that the two take throughout the film.

Like?
In trains itself, they travel through a express train, toy train and a regular train. Apart from that, the two travel on a bicycle, rickshaw, camel cart and different kind of buses. It is a common journey where the two are just thrown in by an accident.

How differently has it been treated than any other boy meets girl film?
Here also boy meets girl but JAB WE MET is not about them falling in love with each other. The issue doesn't lie in creating a love story; that's not just the focus of characters.

So is it a road movie?
JAB WE MET is much beyond a road movie. The story doesn't end with a journey. When the journey ends, the story revisits that journey. It is this phase when they discover a different side of each other.
Coming to Shahid and Kareena, it seems to be a role reversal of sorts. You have put a glamorous Kareena in salwar-suit while Shahid too has been brought out of his young boy image. Was it difficult?
It was not at all difficult for the actors to get into a role reversal mode. In fact when I spoke to both, they were game for it. They were excited about the entire experimentation as they got to be a character that they had never played before. In any case, there was no requirement for a dolled up treatment for Kareena. What's the maximum make up does one apply while being on train? So it made sense for her to go deglam for most of her part though there are a few scenes that required make up. For Shahid, it was good to see him play a mature man. This role reversal brought personality freshness in them that was never done before.

Much attention seems to have been given to the locations.
It was important to get smell of locations in frames and hence we went to different places. We wanted to get real colors from all the places we visited in the outdoors. It was a challenge though to film a large portion of the film in outdoors.

What sort of challenges did you face?
Like controlling crowds. When you have Shahid and Kareena in a film, crowds can be expected to go berserk. I remember when for a couple of times we had to abort the shoot at Kullu. Crowds wanted to be near to them and situation was getting out of control. Ultimately we had to escape from there and it was not a pleasant experience at all for anyone.

One also hears about the challenges posed by the climate.
Yes, 2-3 people from the crew fainted due to cold when we went a little ahead of Rohtang. It was quite dangerous. We had to pronto go down to Manali. Anyways, we later went back to Rohtang and continued to shoot. No regrets there (laughs).

Lastly, one can't help but comment - Even JHOOM BARABAR JHOOM was about strangers meeting at a railway station and later falling in love.
[Laughs] Please, JAB WE MET doesn't remotely resemble JHOOM BARABAR JHOOM!