Imtiaz Ali feels Valentine's day is a marketing gimmick

He is credited for churning out some of the most-cherished love ­stories of Bollywood, but when it comes to raising a toast to occasions such as Valentine’s day, filmmaker Imtiaz Ali seems like a strict non-believer. “I’m not into Valentine’s Day. I came before the ‘Valentine’s-day’ generation,” insists the 42-year-old who however, is not against the celebrations but feels that these occasions are nothing but a result of marketing blitzkrieg.

Source: Raajessh Kashyap/HT Photo

“It’s cool to make it (Valentine’s Day) a reason and do the stuff that you want to do in life. If you want to reach out to a girl … Valentine’s Day is a great ­reason for that, so it’s not a bad thing. I guess the market ­capitalises on it a bit too much. Many of these events that are being created are becoming more and more big as a result of marketing ­rather than people’s needs,” says Imtiaz, known for ­helming cult films including Jab We Met (2007), Rockstar (2011) and Highway (2014).

His next, starring ex-couple Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor in the lead is currently being shot in the Capital. Asked if casting the former lovers is a strategy to create curiosity, like we saw with Kareena (Kapoor Khan)and Shahid (Kapoor) in Jab We Met, and he brushes it off. “That’s surely not the case. When you start making a movie you do not know what’s going to happen at the end of it ... like people who are in a relationship might be or not be. I wish I knew what’s going to happen in somebody’s relationship then I could have done this,” says Ali, who also launched his pet lyricist Irshad Kamil’s book of poems, Ek Maheena Nazmon Ka, while in Delhi.