/> Q: How can a creator who's as cocooned as you know so much about womanhood and widowhood?
A: This where the writer's imagination comes in. You're right. I'm to a large extent not gregarious. But there's enough life around you to observe and absorb, no matter how coooned you are.

I don't claim to consciously sit down and take notes. But yes, sometimes I do take mental notes. Not with Dor. There're certain stories that take their own shape in your mind. All the women in Dor just took concrete shape in my mind.

Q: 3 Deewarein was consciously cinematic whereas Iqbal and now Dor are more slice of life...
A: Each film has its own grammar. At any given time, every director wants to occupy a certain space, and none other. I wrote Dor and started shooting it within 45 days later. I wanted to make a dramatic tale but conveying my sensibility, and that meant putting ordinary people in extraordinary situations.

In the process of writing and making a film, we filmmakers never know where we're heading until the film is made. I couldn't pull back and admire this line or that scene. It's only at the end of the process that I realized the full impact.

Yes, there were some conscious decisions about the characters. Meera (Ayesha Takia) didn't speak a Rajasthani dialect. I didn't want to run the risk of cutting the audience from the emotional content.

I wanted to take my audience on an emotional journey using all the tools at my disposal without distracting from the plot. You're right when you say I don't indulge in too much technical wizardry. I'd get gimmicky if I was doing a slick thriller or comedy.

Q: Is Dor based on a true incident?
A: Only one line about the woman going in search of her missing husband is from newspapers. The rest is all created by me. It's so funny how ideas develop. This idea took root in my imagination only after I placed these women in different geographical locations.

To jump from the life of one woman to another would have been a horrible device if I didn't give enough space to the two women to connect with the audience. Besides the simple device of letting one woman be shown leaving the frame as the other enters,I haven't connected them in any flamboyant way.

Q: There're some peculiar circumstances underscoring the lives of the two protagonists.
A: I'm a huge believer in fate, and that's evident in all my films. In all my films fate intersects in improbable or probable ways. In Dor we enter the story when the destiny of the protagonists is already decided.

Q: While there's a lot of Rajasthani music to complement Ayesha's character where's the Himachal music for Gul Panag?
A: (laughs) The music is a mixed bag. What we did for the women was to give them distinctive instruments in the background. Every time we dealt with Gul we used this a middle-eastern called Dudukh—a haunting flute-like sound. With Ayesha we stayed with Indian instruments...like the Sarangi. We didn't want the music to be obstrusive or clever. Like I said this film wrote itself.

Q: The Shreyas Talpade character isn't quite integrated into the plot?
A: In all journrey- movies I enjoy the supportive companion who helps the protagonist. Every time Shreyas' Behroopiya comes on screen audiences know everything will be fine. Initially I wrote Behroopiya as an older man, as father -figure to Gul Panag.

But then I needed the energy of a younger man. That gave me the opportunity to explore an undefined man-woman relationship between travellers of two genders. Why must all men be lovers or brothers to women in our movies? The Talpade-Panag relationship is just there. It doesn't need to be explained.

Yes, I agree Shreyas didn't need to articulate his feelings for Gul. For an urban audience a look would've been enough. But to connect with the non-metropolitan audience Shreyas' Behroopiya needed to get his feelings off his chest. Shreyas is one wacky guy.

We added all those Bollywood impersonations to his character because he's so good at them in real life. Let's face it, Bollywood is inescapably everywhere. And I'm inextricably linked to Bollywood.

Q: Speaking of Bollywood, how did you ever know Ayesha Takia was capable of what she has done in Dor?
A: The way it happened was one of those accidents that make movies. I was a month away from shoots, auditioning endlessly. But no Meera. Someone suggested Ayesha Takia. I had only seen her jumping around in the promos. I was told she had been cast by Naseeruddin Shah in Yuh Hota To Kya Hota.

In one scene I saw that incredible vulnerability and intrinsic honesty that my character required. I came out smelling like roses with Ayesha. But it could've just as easily backfired. Even Gul Panag is perfect.

Q: You've thoroughly miscast yourself as a lecherous guy.
A: That's precisely the point. I wanted a boringly decent average all's-with-the-world regular guy. This seemingly good guy turns out to be an arse-hole. At the end of the day, in the night most of us men would do things like this (offer to buy the widow from her father-in-law.).

Q: Sorry not me.
A: But it had to be someone you don't suspect. It's just three scenes.

Q: What next?
A: I've a gap before the next big one. I might start a quickie. I've eight script ready. After that I'm planning a film called Ashayen with John Abraham. The title from comes a song in Iqbal. I needed the right movie to put it in.

Ashayen is about a guy who wins a huge sum of money and on the same day learns he's terminally ill. I chose John because he's doing a different cinema. Besides John has honest eyes. When he talks to you it isn't with shifty eyes. Time will tell if my faith is justified.

Q: Are you still a misfit in Bollywood?
A: Less so now. With Iqbal I got a certain level of acceptance from the film industry. I was consciously present at every awards function. This industry is opening up. We're seeing many non-formula films being made and released. The trick is to stop being an outsider and become part of it. I'd rather be at the forefront of the change.