Imtiaz Ali says Main Vaapas Aaunga is not a political film, it's personal

Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali opens up about his upcoming film Main Vaapas Aaunga, saying it is a deeply personal love story set against the backdrop of Partition, rather than a conventional historical drama. Cast members Vedang Raina and Sharvari also share their emotional experiences and sense of responsibility while preparing for their roles.

In Short

• Imtiaz Ali sees Main Vaapas Aaunga as a personal love story set during Partition, not a conventional Partition film
• He emphasises clarity of intent and emotional truth to avoid fear in storytelling
• Vedang Raina felt a strong responsibility to represent Partition era experiences sincerely

For filmmaker Imtiaz Ali, setting a love story against the backdrop of Partition in Main Vaapas Aaunga was never about provoking conversations for the sake of it. The filmmaker said he was always certain about the emotional core of the film, and that certainty is perhaps what kept fear at bay.

Speaking exclusively to India Today, Imtiaz reflected on making a film rooted in one of the most painful chapters in Indian history, at a time when historical narratives often come loaded with political sensitivity.

“When you don’t have anything objectionable in your own heart, when you’re very sure of your own motives, then you don’t have to be scared,” he told India Today. The filmmaker added that he never approached the story as a “Partition film” in the conventional sense.

“Because what does not exist will never be tom-tommed,” he explained thoughtfully. “There cannot be smoke without fire. I was very clear about the intent of the film. I knew it’s a very personal story. It’s not the story of Partition per se. It’s not the story of the country.”

Instead, Imtiaz sees the film as an intimate story unfolding within a historical reality.

“It is taking place in undivided India. There are many things that have happened in the country that need to be registered. Like I said, it’s a very personal story between the protagonists of the film, and it happened during the time of Partition. Partition exists in the film in all its value, but it is also in the out-of-focus region of the film,” he said.

Vedang Raina on Main Vaapas Aaunga

For the younger cast, however, stepping into that world came with an emotional burden of its own.

Vedang Raina, who is just two films old, admitted that while no actor can truly claim to fully understand the trauma people experienced during Partition, he constantly carried a sense of responsibility while portraying someone from that era.

“I always say that there was a sort of responsibility I had,” Vedang said.

“I took this upon myself to have the responsibility of playing a person of this time and to represent what the people of that time must have gone through in whatever little way. And I had to do justice to that, so I put that pressure on myself,” he added.

The actor shared that the emotion stayed with him even subconsciously while filming. “I felt that in my subconscious,” he said.

He further added, “We had a conversation once about a scene, and he said something very interesting, where he said that you approach it honestly for what the character is in this moment.”

Vedang explained that while the larger historical weight was impossible to ignore, Imtiaz encouraged him to remain truthful to the immediacy of the scene rather than perform the history itself.

“For me, it felt like this is a greater responsibility for somebody who’s gone through this. And I kind of feel it in my own way because I’ve seen my grandparents talk about it. I’m a Kashmiri, so they’ve kind of seen migration in their own way. Of course, not in this way, but I had that thought in my head and I couldn’t escape it,” he said.

Still, the actor believes sincerity mattered more than overthinking the burden of representation. “Even though you’re aware of it, you can’t not be aware of it, but you separate it from that because you have to just be true to that moment,” he said.

“Maybe both of us felt somewhere that yes, this is a story that many people have actually lived, and maybe there’s a responsibility somewhere. But in that moment, you just trust your instincts, listen to the instructions coming to you, and be truthful in that moment,” he added.

Sharvari on Partition Museum visit

Sharvari then shared a deeply personal anecdote from the film’s preparation process. The duo had visited the Partition Museum during a recce trip with Imtiaz Ali.

“When we went on a recce with Imtiaz sir, we took a day off and we went to the Partition Museum, and we spent a lot of time there. Because we also wanted to be really responsible about the topic, and hence we did our research and everything that we needed,” Sharvari recalled.

By the end of the visit, both actors found themselves emotionally overwhelmed by the stories preserved inside the museum. “I think by the end of it, we were really moved by the emotion that was there in that building,” she said.

Main Vaapas Aaunga, also starring Diljit Dosanjh and Naseeruddin Shah, is scheduled to release on June 12, 2026.

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