As Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga continues to win audiences’ hearts, mid-day has learnt that it wasn’t the only Partition-set story the filmmaker explored before making the Naseeruddin Shah-led romantic drama. Screenwriter Nayanika Mahtani, who co-wrote Main Vaapas Aaunga, reveals that both Ali and she were once approached by Shah Rukh Khan’s production house to adapt her young adult novel, Across the Line, into a film.
“During my meeting with Imtiaz in Mumbai, he told me that he had an idea for a story that was rooted in the Partition. By then he had also read my book on Partition — Across the Line — which, at that point, Red Chillies wanted to make into a film,” Mahtani reveals.
(L-R) Naseeruddin Shah and Diljit Dosanjh in ‘Main Vaapas Aaunga’. Pics/Instagram, Youtube, X
However, Ali was more drawn to his idea of an elderly man returning to his ancestral village in Pakistan to complete unfinished business. “He liked my book but he thought the story didn’t have everything he wanted to say. So, we parked the adaptation. Across the Line is different from Main Vaapas Aaunga.” While the production house remains keen to adapt the book, Mahtani believes, “It’ll come when it’s time,” adding that she already has a packed slate.
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Nayanika Mahtani is currently writing two films and a period series. “I am an old soul and very much stuck in the 1940s. I am very happy to write those stories,” she says