They played a young couple in "Vijaypath" and now that Tabu is reteaming with her frequent co-star Ajay Devgn for a mature romance in "Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha", the actor is happy that cinema and audiences are more receptive to such stories today.
Directed by Neeraj Pandey, the upcoming Hindi film revolves around Krishna (Devgn) and Vasudha (Tabu), a couple who separates when Krishna is jailed for murder. They cross paths after 20 years when he is released from prison.
Shantanu Maheshwari and Saiee Manjrekar play the younger Krishna and Vasudha, respectively.
At the trailer launch event of "Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha", Tabu thanked Pandey for "envisioning this love story" with her and Devgn.
"When our society changes, our cinema changes, our entertainment changes. It's nice. Society changes everything around us. Now the label has gone (in cinema) that love is only for the young.
"Depth of feeling and emotion of love change with age. Now, there is a space for everything in the cinema. A film director's vision, actors, distributors and the audience's taste... They all should coincide for such films to work," the actor told reporters here.
Devgn, who has also worked with Tabu in films such as "Haqeeqat", "Thakshak" "Drishyam" movies, "Bholaa", "Golmaal Again" and "De De Pyaar De", joked about their long filmography together.
"We have worked together so much that it doesn't feel like I am working with a co-star," he said. Devgn, who was most recently seen in period sports drama "Maidaan", also batted for movies that map the evolution of human emotions.
"With age, your feelings, whatever they may be, get deeper. You start analysing things which you don't until a certain age. You start to understand the actual feelings after a certain age," the actor said.
Asked whether he had any doubt about doing a romantic story at a time when action movies are flavour of the season, Devgn said it is important to "keep doing something different" as actors.
"I have been trying to do that since the beginning. I did 'Thakshak', 'Raincoat', or 'Dil Kya Kare' when no one was doing it. I think that kept me going. What I learnt from those movies is helpful to me even today," he said.
Pandey said when he came into the industry, he wanted to make a love story but it took him 16 years to realise his dream.
"... Unfortunately, nobody wanted to produce it. So we had to wait for 16 years to come up with this," said the filmmaker, known for "Special 26", "A Wednesday" and "MS Dhoni: The Untold Story".
"There are always those doubting Thomases. So, you do what you want to do. Simply ignore that sort of advice and go along with your conviction. Since everybody is doing action, it may be imperative that I do a love story," he added.
Pandey said when he narrated the story of "Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha" to Devgn, he liked the script but also asked "Why not make a spy film?" "I told him that it will come later," the director recalled. Devgn said he saw the film not as a risk but as something "different". "When Neeraj narrated the story, I will be very honest, I told him, 'I love the story and it touched the heart. (But) I don't know what is going to happen commercially.' He (Neeraj) said, 'Don't worry. Leave it on me', and I said, 'Ok'." Billed as a musical romantic drama, "Auron Mein Kahan Dum That" also stars Jimmy Shergill and Sayaji Shinde. The original soundtrack of the film has been created by Oscar-winning composer MM Kreem and the lyrics are by Manoj Muntashir.
The film is produced by Narendra Hirawat, Kumar Mangat Pathak (Panorama Studios), Sangeeta Ahir and Shital Bhatia. It will be released on July 5.
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