Prateik drew my attention from his first film, Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na, Issaq director Manish Tiwary reveals

Issaq, Manish Tiwary's modern take on Shakespeare's tragic drama Romeo and Juliet, is going to be something special. The director’s effort to give the classic a unique twist resulted in addition of more antagonists to oppose the two lovers in his film.

Tiwary shared, "One of the initial twists to my film was to attempt something, which I can give a unique angle to. This happened at the scripting level. We started adapting that angle on love.” Though Prateik Babbar and Amyra Dastur form the central characters of the film, they will not be the only ones in the limelight of the film. Tiwary stated further, "To make it novel, you have to start from the basics - how you treat the meaning of love and the treatment of the surrounding cast. We realised that the film needed more antagonists to oppose the love, which the lovers have.”

The tragic love story of Issaq is based in Benaras, Uttar Pradesh. The director said about the selected locale, "You cannot make Romeo and Juliet in a contemporary context in Europe anymore... where the feudal system has been destroyed, but if I go to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, it still exists. We found this in Benaras. You keep finding a context where your story can be set in a youthful character.” He had also something to say about the cast of the film, "Prateik drew my attention from his first film ('Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na') and 'Dhobi Ghat'. I approached him and then I had to wait for a couple of films, which he had signed, to complete. He has a presence on screen.” He added, "Amyra was a long search. When I saw Amyra, a Parsi girl, she was still in school and could not speak Hindi properly, but there was something about her. It was more of a director's instinct. She had this head-strong character, which Bachi (the character) needed.” Isaaq, also starring Rajeshwari Sachdev, Ravi Kishan and others, will release on July 26.