The search begins

As November 30 draws closer so does the release of director Reema Kagti's suspense drama Talaash. The Aamir Khan-starrer has already created a lot of anticipation among the audience, with its promos and music. In a candid interview, scriptwriters Reema and Zoya Akhtar talk about the film and what to expect from it

The script for Talaash was written eight years ago, much before Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. Why did it take so long to make a film on it?

Reema : Eight years ago, we collaborated on the story and wrote it. At that point, we had not decided what we wanted to do with it.

Zoya : When we wrote Talaash then, we did it to sell the story. So, we sold it to Excel Entertainment. Farhan (Akhtar) really liked the story, but he got busy making other films.

But finally it's you, and not Farhan, who has ended up directing the movie?

Reema : It was a story Zoya and I both loved. It was also the first story on which we collaborated together. But while writing it, we didn't know how it was going to shape up. When we realised how beautiful the story has turned out to be, the story had already been sold to Excel. But when Honeymoon... was complete, I had a conversation with Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan about what I should do next. That's when it crossed my mind that since Talaash's story was kind of unique to what Zoya and I did as writers, it should only be directed by one of us. I asked Ritesh, Farhan and Zoya if it was okay that I direct the film, and they were fine with it.

What inspired you to write Talaash?

Zoya : I really liked the genre. We used to have suspense drama, which are not thrillers, it was an investigation. It's a very different genre. You don't see that anymore on the Indian screen. Of late, Kahaani had a suspense element in it, which I really enjoyed. The story of Talaash got triggered off with an incident that happened with me. It was while discussing this incident that we got the beginning of Talaash. Writing about a world we know nothing of, turned out to be quite interesting. We made contact with the Khar police station and would hang around with cops. We even went to police club to know more about their lives. Lots of things in the film came from them.

... contd.

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