‘Never Put Anyone To Sleep During Sex’

‘Imagine
having
a
conversation
with
your
parents,
where
you
say,
“I
want
to
break
up
with
someone
because
he’s
bad
in
bed”.’

Modern
love
and
sex
are
depicted
very
different
in
films
and
Web
series
these
days,
with
rom-coms
taking
a
very
different
variation
from
before.

Break
Ke
Baad
Director

Danish
Aslam
feels
this
is
the
fastest
changing
genre
and
explores
a
version
of
it
in
his
latest
film

Khwaabon
Ka
Jhamela
,
starring
Prateik
Babbar,
Sayani
Gupta
and
Kubbra
Sait.

“In
the
last
10
years,”
Danish
tells
tells

Patcy
N/Rediff.com,
“we’ve
shifted
to

Badhaai
Ho
and

Bareilly
Ki
Barfi,
which
are
great
films
and
have
great
actors
but
aren’t
traditional
rom-coms.
I
wanted
to
make
a
rom-com
without
being
cliched
about
it,
without
making
it
exactly
like
how
we
would
in
the
’90s.”

Your
films,

Khwaabon
Ka
Jhamela
and

Break
Ke
Baad,
seem
to
have
commitment
issues.
Why
is
that?

There
are
two
reasons.

Firstly,
I
love
dysfunctional
relationships.

I
love
a
story
which
takes
a
conventional
romance
like

KKJ,
and
a
standard
rom-com
trope
like
the
previous
one,
and
turn
it
on
its
head.

In

Break
Ke
Baad,
it
was
living
with
the
ex.
In
this,
it’s
a
host
of
other
issues.

Secondly,
the
story
wasn’t
mine.
It
was
something
Harman
(Baweja)
and
Vicky
(Bahri)
had
pitched
to
me.

I
liked
the
basic
skeleton
and
changed
a
lot
of
stuff.

But
the
idea
of
commitment
is
not
so
strong
in
this.
It’s
more
of
a
coming-of-age
story
of
a
guy.

It
is
an
adaptation
of
the
2012
Canadian
film,

My
Awkward
Sexual
Adventure.
How
did
Harman
Baweja
and
Vicky
Bhari
came
on
board?

The
adaptation
bit
is
mentioned
in
the
opening
credits.

Harman
and
Vicky
had
the
rights
to
the
film,
and
had
a
story
based
on
that.

I
feel
that
the
rom-coms
we
used
to
make
in
the
2000s
and
2010s
like

Salaam
Namaste,
Hum
Tum,
Kal
Ho
Naa
Ho
have
gone
away.

I
grew
up
on
those,
worked
on
them
when
I
was
an
AD
(Assistant
Director)
and
feel
that
there
is
still
a
huge
audience
for
them.

In
the
14
years,
since

Break
Ke
Baad,
Imran
(Khan)
and
I
have
been
approached
by
so
many
people
saying,
‘We
really
like
that
film.’

My
standard
answer
has
been,
‘Bhai,
2010

mein
kahaan
they?
Theater

mein
jaake
dekhi
thi
na?
Ab
kyu
bata
rahe
ho?‘

Jokes
apart,
I
feel
people
miss
that
genre.

In
the
last
10
years,
we’ve
shifted
to

Badhaai
Ho
and

Bareilly
Ki
Barfi,
which
are
great
films
and
have
great
actors
but
aren’t
traditional
rom-coms.

They
are
heavy
on
drama
and
social
messaging.

I
wanted
to
make
a
rom-com
without
being
cliched
about
it,
without
making
it
exactly
like
how
we
would
in
the
’90s.

In
both
the
films,
it
is
girl
who
is
shying
away
from
commitment.

I
skew
a
little
bit
towards
strong
female
characters.

There
are
many
reasons.

First,
it’s
not
conventional.
The
norm
is
always
to
have
a
stronger
male
character,
in
Indian
cinema
at
least,
and
I
find
that
boring.

Secondly,
in
this
film,
you
can’t
really
blame
the
girl
for
having
commitment
issues.

He
puts
her
to
sleep
(during
sex).
It
doesn’t
get
worse
than
that!

Movies
and
love
stories
are
derived
from
our
personal
experiences
and
the
people
around
us.

I
thought
I’d
be
asked
this
question
in
every
interview
but
I’ve
only
been
asked
this
twice
or
thrice.

I
have
never
put
anyone
to
sleep
(during
sex)
to
the
best
of
my
knowledge.

Why
are
you
fascinated
with
that?

The
original
film
is
more
sexual
because
it’s
about
a
guy
who
wants
to
get
better
at
sex.

The
person
he
depends
on
is
a
stripper.

Zubin’s
(played
by
Prateik)
character’s
coming-of-age
is
on
something
that
is
so
relevant.

Kubra
(Sait)
has
a
line
in
the
film:
‘Now
imagine
having
a
conversation
like
this
with
your
parents,
where
you
say,
I
want
to
break
up
with
someone
because
he’s
bad
in
bed.’

Imagine
having
that
conversation
in
India!

This
setup
was
attractive
to
me.

We
are
evolving
as
a
society,
so
a
lot
of
our
dilemmas
are
not
the
same
as
they
used
to
be
20
years
ago.

Rom-coms
need
to
be
updated
every
10,
20
years.

If
you
see
a
film
from
20
years
ago,
even
if
its

Salaam
Namaste
or

Hum
Tum,
there
are
so
many
things
that
you
will
find
dated.

During
the
lockdown,
my
wife
started
watching

Friends
again,
and
we
realised
there
are
so
many
problematic
episodes.

In
the
past,
we
used
to
communicate
via
letters,
then
it
became
trunk
calls,
then
cell
phones,
WhatsApp…
now,
it
is
Tinder,
Bumble…

The
language
in
which
love
stories
are
told
needs
to
be
updated
constantly.

Sayani
(Gupta)
plays
an
intimacy
coordinator
but
that
job
didn’t
exist
until
five
years
ago.

Imtiaz
Ali
did
that
really
well
in

Love
Aaj
Kal,
where
Saif
(Ali
Khan)
just
went
and
stood
outside
the
girl’s
window
for
a
day.
That
was
such
a
beautiful
scene.
But
if
you
ask
somebody
from
today’s
generation
to
stand
outside
somebody’s
window,
they
will
say,
have
you
lost
your
mind?

It
will
be
called
stalking.

Exactly.

What
Saif
did
was
romantic
in
its
time.

Times
keep
changing
and
I
think
romantic
comedies
are
one
genre
that
has
changed
the
fastest
because
the
way
we
talk
and
live
keeps
changing.

Cinema
helps
people
fall
in
love.

Some
of
the
biggest
hits
in
the
last
two
years
are
rom-coms
like

Anyone
But
You,
Something
Of
You,
Image
Of
You,
Idea
Of
You…

There
were
five
movies
with
‘you’
in
the
title
that
released
in
a
space
of
four
or
five
months
and
they
are
really
working.

That
show
on
Netflix,

Nobody
Wants
This,
everybody
was
talking
about
that
for
a
really
long
time.

So
there
is
a
huge
market
for
rom-coms
because
people
miss
that
in
their
lives.

Love
stories
are
eternal.
Their
relevance
never
goes
away.

My
daughter
is
10.
She
is
going
to
start
going
through
that
phase
in
a
few
years.

Everybody
who
discovers

When
Harry
Met
Sally
for
the
first
time
thinks
I’m
the
only
person
who
understood
this
movie.

I
feel
people
will
continue
to
get
inspired
by
movies
to
fall
in
love,
and
also
fall
out
of
love.

You
made

Break
Ke
Baad
in
2010.
Why
did
you
take
so
long
to
make
your
second
film?

The
first
two-three
years
after

Break
Ke
Baad
were
spent
in
trying
to
make
another
film.
Twice,
it
almost
happened
with
two
different
production
houses.

In
2016,
I
started
making
a
Web
series.

I
consider
this
as
an
achievement;
I
was
doing
Web
series
even
before
Netflix
and
Amazon
came
to
India.

Voot
was
one
first
one
to
do
it.

I
did
a
show
for
them
called

It’s
Not
That
Simple
with
Swara
(Bhasker).

At
the
time,
nobody
knew
what
a
Web
Series
was.

If
somebody
would
ask
me
what
I
was
doing,
I
would
say,
I
am
doing
a
series.

They
would
ask,
‘So
you’re
doing
TV?’

‘No,
it’s
not
TV.’

‘But
does
it
have
episodes?’

‘Yeah.’

‘So
it’s
TV.’

‘No,
it’s
not
TV.’

That
was
the
conversation
I
had
to
go
through
in
2016.

Then
suddenly
everybody
knew
what
a
Web
series
was.

I
directed
about
five
Web
series
in
seven
years.

Swara
Bhasker
and
Jaideep
Alhawat
are
fantastic
actors
and
good
friends.
They
can
lead
a
show.

It
would
be
very
difficult
to
mount
a
movie
in
the
traditional
Bollywood
set
up
with
these
people,
so
I
enjoyed
Web
series
simply
because
they
gave
me
a
lot
of
freedom.

I
did

Flesh,
a
dark
thriller,
again
with
Swara.

Any
plans
of
you
reuniting
with
your

Break
Ke
Baad
hero,
Imran
Khan?

I
am
working
on
a
movie
with
Imran.
Hopefully,
we
will
be
able
to
announce
soon.

Being
a
director,
is
there
a
constant
struggle
to
prove
yourself?

It’s
very
easy
to
say
that
I
only
make
films
for
myself.

Show
business
is
money-minded
but
I
don’t
subscribe
to
both
views
entirely.

I’m
somewhere
in
between
where
I
feel
that
at
the
end
of
the
day,
all
art
is
performative.
When
you’re
creating
something,
you’re
bringing
it
in
the
world
and
putting
it
on
a
platform
for
other
people
to
see.
Opinions
matter.

For
some
people,
that
is
the
only
validation.

While
it
is
important,
that’s
not
the
end
of
it.

Rs
400
crore,
Rs
500
crore
(Rs
4
billion,
Rs
5
billion)
blockbusters
are
rare.

Streaming
has
given
niche
content
to
the
audience.
If
20
percent
of
the
subscribers
are
into
your
show
or
film,
you’re
good
to
go.

Everything
doesn’t
have
to
be
a

Squid
Game
or
an

RRR.

Look
at

Panchayat.

Exactly.
Who
would
have
made
that
in
the
non-streaming
era?

You
don’t
have
any
A-lister
stars;
it’s
a
story
set
in
a
village.

There
are
so
many
avenues
of
validation
now.

Earlier,
it
was
just
hit
or
flop.

You
can
find
validation
even
if
you’ve
made
a
terrible
product.

Any
regrets?

Mom
told
me
to
become
a
doctor.
I
think
about
it
everyday,
especially
when
a
film
releases
and
it
isn’t
promoted.
(Laughs)

But
I
don’t
think
I
have
any
big
regrets.

The
high
I
get
here,
I
don’t
think
I
can
get
that
in
any
other
profession.

I
would
love
to
live
in
another
city
because
living
in
Bombay
is
becoming
increasingly
more
and
more
difficult
and
unhealthy.

Unfortunately,
we
are
tied
here
through
this
profession.

I’ve
somehow
been
tethered
to
one
city
now
for
20
years,
that’s
probably
my
only
regret.

We
had
gone
to
Oxford
last
year
because
my
wife
(Shruti
Seth)
was
studying
there.
We
were
like,
I
want
to
live
here,
this
is
such
a
beautiful
place.

Why
can’t
I
live
there?
We
remembered
that
we
have
to
come
back
to
work.

But
career
wise,
I
don’t
think
I’d
be
able
to
do
anything
else.