Imtiaz Ali reveals the reason of working with Shah Rukh Khan in 'The Ring'

Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali, who can't stop gushing about his upcoming directorial 'The Ring' starring Shah Rukh Khan, says that the sole reason of doing the movie with the superstar was the two wanted to do something different.

Tentatively titled The Ring, slated for release in August next year, the movie marks the first collaboration between the 51-year-old actor and the director.

For Imtiaz, who has directed six films in his Bollywood career of more than a decade, there is no pressure with regard to directing Shah Rukh or making a certain type of film that the actor is known for.

“No. That is not the arrangement with which we are working. The reason why Shah Rukh and I are working is because both us wanted to do something which we were not doing really,” Imtiaz told PTI.

Through his films, the 45-year-old director has often tried to tap the modern-day relationships and portray contemporary romance on the big screen. Imtiaz, whose last film was Tamasha, says he did not want to stick to a certain kind of movie-making and feels even the Fan actor wanted to come out and try something new.

“For me, I didn’t want to fall into a pattern of the certain type of film. And he (Shah Rukh) wanted to break out of the pattern that he was in. That’s the reason why we got to work.” In the film, Shah Rukh is said to be playing a tourist guide and would be seen opposite actress Anushka Sharma.

Unlike Imtiaz’s last three films — Tamasha, Highway and Rockstar — the music of which was scored by A R Rahman, The Ring will bring back composer Pritam, who dished out chartbuster music for the director’s movies like Jab We Met and Love Aaj Kal.

When asked if The Ring will be in a similar space to these two films, Imtiaz said as of now his aim is to just make the film honestly without any comparisons. 

“I am not really thinking of it that way. I am just thinking of this particular story and trying to make it in the best way possible, whether it turns out closer to Jab We Met or Rockstar, that I don’t know,” he said.  The director has mentored the short film of Satish Raj Kasireddi, titled “Mia I’m”, which is one among the seven short movies of the anthology Shor Se Shuruaat.

Imtiaz started his career writing and directing TV shows before making his directorial debut in 2005 with Socha Na Tha, starring Abhay Deol and Ayesha Takia. He feels that while today there is a great platform for budding filmmakers to showcase their work, there are many options too which can get them confused, a problem which he and his contemporaries did not face.

“There is accessibility, so it’s easy for them to steer into certain places. But for us the biggest advantage, in comparison to them, was we had very few options and we had to put in all our efforts in that one option,” he said.

“They seem to be more privileged because there are various types of avenues they can go into, for us that wasn’t there. We weren’t really getting confused because of our choices,” he further said. Backed by Humara Movies, Shor Se Shuruaat also includes short films mentored by stalwarts like Mira Nair, Shyam Benegal, Zoya Akhtar, Nagesh Kukunoor, and Homi Adajania. The film released this Friday.