If making a movie is a difficult task, deciding its title is also not an easy thing to do and if you have any doubt about it, let us talk about Imtiaz Ali’s next “Jab Harry Met Sejal” starring Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma in lead roles.
First of all, there was a lot of speculation as to who will be playing the female lead and then there was confusion regarding the title. Few titles were suggested, such as The Ring, Rehnuma and Raula and Imtiaz even kept a prize of Rs. 5,000 for the person whose suggested title would be selected. However, after the final title was declared, people got more confused, as it seemed to be the mix version of Imtiaz’s earlier movie “Jab We Met” and a Hollywood classic “When Harry Met Sally”.
Social media sites were flooded with jokes and memes on this title and users even called it the worst movie title of the year. Some people have also suggested that this film is a copy of “When Harry Met Sally” and one of them is self-proclaimed number one critic of Bollywood, Kamaal R Khan.
KRK tweeted, “So actually copycat Imtiyaz Ali has copied his film #JabHarryMetSejal from this film. Hai Ho! Lol”
https://twitter.com/kamaalrkhan/status/873039873900388352
After this all, King of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan himself has denied any similarity between the stories of both the movies and he says that his next with Imtiaz is quite an original love story. He gave an indirect reply to KRK’s tweet and said,
“The films have no similarity, except for the fact that we can hope our movie can also be one of that kind of unabashed classic love stories. When Harry Met Sally is one of the greatest love stories ever made in the history of world cinema… There’s nothing about the stories, which is similar. It is quite original, a fun space love story by Imtiaz Ali. But it is a takeoff from there (When Harry Met Sally) as that movie is a classic. It is a way to attribute.”
The movie will be based on the lives of a tourist guide named Harinder Singh Nehra aka Harry played by SRK and Sejal Parikh, a Gujju girl. SRK and Anushka have worked together earlier also in “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi” and “Jab Tak Hai Jaan”.
If you don’t know, let us enlighten you with the fact that this title was suggested by Ranbir Kapoor. This is what Ranbir revealed at a song launch of his next “Jagga Jasoos”:
“I suggested the title of the film and that time people laughed at me saying, ‘Kya bakwaas title hai (What a useless title it is’. Today when the poster of the film released with my suggested title, I was very happy.”
Ranbir further added,
“I was shooting at the Mehboob Studio where Shah Rukh sir and Imtiaz were also shooting. So I went to meet them and I suggested the title while chatting with them. I am looking forward as a fan and as an audience member to watch the interesting collaboration of Imtiaz Ali and SRK.”
Undoubtedly, the title has not made people happy but we hope that the flick lives up to the expectations of fans and viewers alike.