Our story begins at the airport. With a story. When Rotlu, Jiggy, Bombs and Shaleen offer to tell Mala the tale of Jai and Aditi - a match made in the pastry shop of heaven - Mala is convinced that she is in for yet another clichéd love story with joys and sorrows, happiness and heartbreak, laughter and songs, fights… and a climax at the airport.

And indeed, Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na is all of that. And more!

Meet Jai Singh Rathore (‘Rats’), the most non-violent Rajput either side of the Aravallis. And meet, if you dare, the violent and passionate Aditi Mahant (‘Meow’).Whatever you do, do not pick a fight with her. She scratches. And abuses. If you do get into a scrap, take cover till Jai arrives, as he alone can calm our snarling wildcat.

Never was there a less likely couple. Jai thinks Aditi’s parents should have rinsed her mouth with soap when she was a child. Aditi thinks that Jai is the biggest coward she has ever encountered. Heaven, it seems, has mixed up its apples and oranges.

More nuts in this fruitcake scenario: Rotlu weeps secretly for Aditi. Bombs’ heart explodes for Jai. Jiggy applies golden mascara to his hair. Shaleen… well, she’s probably the only one who doesn’t seem a few notes short of a concerto.

So, to come back to our story: Jai and Aditi are perfect for each other (in some odd, distorted way, impossible to understand). Friends know this. Parents know this.
Everybody knows this. But do Rats and Meow know?

Can two people ever, truly, know the secrets of their hearts? And how do you know it’s the real thing?

When do you know it’s love?

Add to this quandary a quarrelling portrait, strange dreams of a desert warrior, a dope-head brother and his pet mouse, two Rajput ‘cowboys’, three ancestral conditions, a fateful night in jail, a climactic ride to the airport…

… and there, you have it! Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na. The coolest, warmest, hippest, funniest musical-romantic-comedy of the decade.

Well, at least of the last few years.

Ok, maybe this year.

Fine, the coolest, warmest… etc. to release on Friday 4th July, 2008.

For sure!

Hopefully…

Dramatis Personae:

Imran Khan
Jai Singh Rathore (‘Rats’) Hailing from the town of Ranjhore in Rajasthan, Jai Singh Rathore is everything a Rathore from Ranjhore is not supposed to be – pleasant, warm, funny, kind, sensitive and pathologically non-violent.

Imran Khan featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper (8).jpgImran Khan featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper (7).jpgImran Khan featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper (6).jpgImran Khan featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper (5).jpgGenelia D Souza, Imran Khan featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper.jpgGenelia D Souza, Imran Khan featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper (7).jpg

Jai’s father passed away when he was still an infant, and he has been brought up by his mother Savitri. The few years she endured as the bahu of a Rajput joint-family remain a nauseating memory for Jai’s mother. After her husband passed away, Savitri ran away from this insane clan and came to Mumbai, where she now works as a professional social worker struggling with human rights issues.

Savitri’s upbringing has ensured that Jai is the most unlikely Rathore either side of the Aravallis. Her staunch belief is that Indian mothers are responsible for their sons turning out to be such jerks – so she has never pampered Jai. Everything – from preparing breakfast to doing the laundry – Jai does himself. They share a great friendship, but also completely respect each other’s space.

The most important thing in Jai’s life is Aditi. They connected the first day they met, and nobody has ever seen them apart since. When they are not together, they are on the phone. And so, to friends and family, it is simply a question of time before the two get married.

Genelia
Aditi (‘Meow’) Aditi had once – in a fit of honesty – admitted to Jai that as a child, she had been teased ‘Kali Billi’ by her neighbourhood friends. Jai upgrades this to ‘Meow’ and the name sticks. While Aditi will murder anyone else who tries calling her Meow, she also feels a flinch if anyone else – especially another woman – calls Jai ‘Rats’.

Genelia D Souza featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper (3).jpgGenelia D Souza, Imran Khan featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper (7).jpgGenelia D Souza, Imran Khan featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper (8).jpgGenelia D Souza featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper (7).jpgGenelia D Souza featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper (4).jpgGenelia D Souza, Imran Khan, Karan, Alishka, Nirav, Sugandha featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper (4).jpg

Aditi is high on life. She loves everything to do with life and living. She laughs easy, cries easy, gets into scraps, adopts stray kittens, will try everything at least once and loves a good scrap. In spite of all this, she is not exactly a tomboy. She dresses with a stylish disregard for style. She is quite attractive – the only problem is that she intimidates men too much for them to do anything about it.

An interaction with Aditi is exhausting. A friendship just barely possible. An affair would be murder. And the world wonders how Jai survives.

But no one doubts this – should someone else trouble or hurt Jai, that person would have made a vicious, vengeful and foul-mouthed enemy for life!

Karan
Ravindran (‘Rotlu’)
’Rotlu’, as the name suggests, is the whiner of the group. Show him a silver lining and Rotlu will find you a dark cloud. Show him a light at the end of the tunnel and he’ll think it’s a train – never mind that there are no tracks.

The saving grace – Rotlu is the first person to admit that he is a pessimist. He thrives on sympathy. He knows he whines. He knows he cribs and complains and that sometimes he tries their patience. But the thing that makes Rotlu special is that his love and friendship know no bounds. He will do anything for a friend.

Especially for Aditi, whom he secretly pines for.

Genelia D Souza, Imran Khan, Karan, Alishka, Nirav, Sugandha featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper (4).jpgAlishka, Sugandha featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper (26).jpgNirav, Sugandha featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper (28).jpgNirav, Karan featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper (29).jpgKaran, Alishka featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper (27).jpgImran Khan featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper (7).jpg

Alishka
Sandhya (‘Bombs’)
’Bombs’ is slow on the uptake. If she was any slower, she would be backward on the uptake. As Aditi once remarks, her plane needs two runways to take off.

Bombs can drive you insane with her naïveté and innocence. She wears Playboy “Bunny” T-shirts and accessories because she thinks rabbits are cute. She is always the last to laugh at a joke – often without quite getting it. She also thinks it’s very funny that they call her Bombs. Her capacity to miss compliments or smile casually over flattery makes her a pretty frustrating girl to woo, second only to Aditi.

Bombs is in love with Jai. So obviously, she doesn’t like Aditi too much. Largely because she won’t let Bombs call him Rats. But also because she is always the center of attention – exactly where Bombs wants to be.

Nirav
Jignesh Patel (‘Jiggy’)

’Jiggy’ is a complete miser. A rich Gujju boy with a taste for all things loud and colourful, he is constantly complaining about being broke and hates paying for anything.

Jiggy always forgets birthdays but hates anyone forgetting his – he will start reminding people a week in advance on a daily basis, along with “subtle” hints as to what gifts he might like to receive.

However, his friends have figured him out and there is very little sympathy extended towards Jiggy for his perpetual “poverty”. The thing that Jiggy hates most is that he is automatically expected to pay for Rotlu, and he hates Rotlu for it. However, Rotlu is such a masochist that he makes himself feel terrible about this before Jiggy can even start, and sometimes Jiggy is happy to pay just to have Rotlu shut up.

For some unfathomable reason, Jiggy gets very upset when he hears about someone getting an American visa.

Sugandha
Shaleen
Shaleen is so normal; you wonder what she is doing with this lot. She is clever, perceptive, warm, and somehow free of the hormonal angst that seems to characterise the others’ lives.

She is very, very close to Aditi; they often stay over with each other and talk long into the night. The only reason Aditi doesn’t share all her secrets with her is that Aditi has no secrets. In any case, it is very difficult to keep a secret from Shaleen. She often sees things that others have missed, and can see the course friendships and relationships will take.

The coolest girl in college, she also adores Jiggy and his silliness for some reason – presumably a premature maternal instinct.

Producers’ notes:

Mansoor Khan
Mansoor featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper (2).jpg Every now and then something happens that – for better or worse - shifts your life to a track that you were least prepared for. Here I was in the idyllic town of Coonoor, in the hills, preparing myself for Global Warming, Peak Oil and other catastrophes when suddenly I get a call from Aamir telling me I have to take the next flight to Bombay, if Jaane Tu… was to be shot anytime within a year. It was that simple – a call from the family that could not be ignored, as Jaane Tu… was also long over-due to launch my nephew Imran Khan.

The next day I was sitting in A. K. Productions’ office in Bombay, meeting a team of bright-eyed youngsters who were introduced to me as Abbas, the writer and director, Manoj, the cinematographer, Shaan, the editor and Raghav, the associate director. I tried to look as confident as possible and the journey started.

I must admit I felt like I was starting from scratch. So many things had changed in filmmaking that I could have easily surrendered. But a few things kept me going. First, Abbas had written a tight, inspired script - the real starting point before any producer should think of pouring money and effort into shooting it. Second, it was a perfect launch for my nephew, Imran, who Abbas saw in the lead role from the first time he saw him. Third, the music by A R Rahman was fabulous and one of his best in Hindi films. And last but not least - Aamir’s confidence in me to take over as producer.

Jaane Tu … was a revitalizing experience for me – to brush-up on old skills and learn new rules.

I first countered, then, gradually absorbed Abbas’s unique way of instructing his actors and playing out the scene for the camera. Though it seemed to break some rules in my head, they brought amazing results. So what if he does not like to make shot breakdowns!

I admired Manoj, the cinematographer who was strikingly amicable even while managing the heaviest shifts of lighting the Bombay streets at night with minimum fanfare, yet achieving a new look and feel. So what if he wanted half the lighting equipment in town.

I joked easily with Raghav, the associate director, on whose broad shoulders rested the weight of making it all happen on the shooting set. So what if he finished off half my sandwiches.

I gradually understood the tribulations of being a sync-sound recordist as I watched Stephen deal with all the unwanted noises of the Bombay streets, birds and occasional team members, to give a clean sync-sound track. No wonder he did not talk much.

I never knew when Shaan, the editor, put it all together but it was ready to watch with new twists, no sooner had we shot it. One way to keep the producer from making painful suggestions!

And above all I learnt how to work in tandem with Rao Sahab who played the strict executive producer, keeping schedules on track, budgets in control and adolescent hormones of crew members in check, while still being practical and loveable.

I was grateful to Kiran as associate producer who made well-timed appearances and saved us when we were in trouble.

Aamir was the perfect co-producer – few words of advice but sticking rigidly to the budget limit. That’s it! Made us think harder.

On the actor’s front, Imran was one I was most concerned about - after all, this was his launch film. It kind of reminded me of how I felt about Aamir during earlier shoots of Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak. But Imran put me at ease soon. He showed remarkable inner confidence with a sharp learning curve while evolving his own pitch of rendering a scene in an original and effective manner.

Genelia was dynamite the moment the camera rolled - plain watchable, no matter what she did or wore.

So many other contributors in the Jaane Tu… team and each one I have learnt something from. Oh hell, I was actually beginning to enjoy this diversion from my bucolic farm life.

And now the film is done and it is time to write a producer’s note. Well let me tell you, the defining moment of a film is the final cut. And having watched that I am glad I was pulled out of the hills to associate with a young film team that has effectively translated a wonderful script into a memorable film.

Now back to Global Warming and Peak Oil.

Aamir Khan
Aamir Khan featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper (8).jpg Taking over as director of TZP changed my life in many ways. One of the immediate ramifications was that I was no longer available to Jaane Tu… as a producer. Jaane Tu… is important to me for more reasons than one. The obvious reason is Imran, but the more delicate one is that this would be the first film from Aamir Khan Productions which I would not be acting in. As a production house we intend to produce many films which won’t have me in the cast, and these films are as important to me as the ones I act in. I believe my involvement as producer is as important to me as my involvement as an actor. Basically, I am extremely particular about anything which has my name on it. Which is why when I took over as director of TZP I had no choice but to indefinitely delay Jaane Tu…. unless I found someone to take over from me, someone whose creative instincts I trusted as much as my own. For paranoid freaks like me that’s not an easy one.

In fact there is only one person I trust more than myself in the business of filmmaking and that is Mansoor. But how does one get him to take over? The good old reliable method of course… emotional blackmail!

Mansoor who is taking an indefinite break from films, and who I have been trying in vain to lure back into making films is not an easy nut to crack. But I have been known to be persuasive. Blood hound is how I am described by my near and dear ones, once I smell blood I don’t let go, no matter how impossible the chase.

Well Mansoor was kind enough to say yes. “Only the shooting stage,” he grumbled. “Yes, yes,” I said, “I’ll handle the rest.”

Mansoor was a godsend for us. And I pray that having spent these months with us afflicted people the germs would have got into him once again. Cinema is a very contagious disease, so please remember to thank me folks, when he makes his comeback film.

In the meantime my thanks to Abbas and his young team of actors and technicians for giving Aamir Khan Productions a film that I have absolutely no hesitation in putting my name to.

Director’s Note
Abbas Tyrewala

Abbas, Genelia D Souza, Imran Khan featured in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Wallpaper.jpgSometime in early 2005, I found myself confronted with a MASSIVE writer’s block. I could spend days sitting in front of a computer screen… and nothing. Blank screen, blank mind.

So, I supposed, I was ready to turn director.

Jokes aside, the fact of the matter is that ten years of writing had drained me. I needed a new challenge, a new role to excite and stimulate me. Thus was born Jaane Tu…

Jaane Tu… is the story of youth as I remember it. The age where we first get to know the secrets of the heart. The loves, friendships and jealousies that seem so earth-shattering, so life-altering at the time and years later, so laughably gentle and innocent. Of course, the film goes off on its own journey including some song-and-dance, a talking portrait, a corrupt cop and a couple of horse-mounted Rajput cowboys. It even has the quintessential airport climax.

But ultimately, the movie is made to remind each one of us what it felt like when we first started falling in love.

Three years and many adventures later, Jaane Tu… is complete. And a completed film no longer needs a director.

I have never been able to hold on to a film that has no further use for me. Already, it feels like someone else’s movie. Nothing remains of the heartache and the headache – the proverbial agony and ecstasy of its filming – except a vague memory.

All that remains, of course, is people. The amazing individuals I encountered during the course of filming this movie, towards whom I feel immense gratitude and affection.

Like Aamir Khan, an incredibly generous producer and a fantastic human being. A genius like Mansoor Khan, who was dragged out of his reclusive existence to help us make this movie. And Kiran Rao, who tried in vain to keep us within budget, but ultimately always found a way to meet my greedy requirements

My entire technical team, who gave me such solid support, and the wonderful actors I had to work with. All of them warm, funny and incredibly gifted individuals: Imran, who won my respect and affection like few people ever have. Genilia, whose energy can infect the most melancholy soul with random happiness. Manjari, who liked the script enough to ignore all notions of ‘lead’ and ‘second lead’, and do a role as close to my heart as “Meghna”.

A R Rahman, whom I’ve always wanted to write lyrics for, and who gave me such perfect songs. Manoj Lobo, my cinematographer, who was a friend the day I met him, and remains amongst my closest.

And above all, a girl whom I met randomly at a coffee shop and asked to assist me on this film. She not only agreed, she also agreed to partner me through life. My wife Pakhi.

To meet so many beautiful people in one lifetime is rare. To meet them over one film is simply Grace: Dad’s prayers, Mom’s blessings, the love and good wishes of my family and friends.

To all of them I say, thank you for being there. Thank you for believing. I couldn’t have done it without you.
Jaane Tu, Ya Jaane Na?

P.S. “Mom! Dad! Look… I made a movie!”

Cast & Crew

PVR Pictures Presents
Aamir Khan Productions’

Jaane Tu . . . Ya Jaane Na

Starring
Imran Khan
Genelia
Manjari, Ayaz Khan
Karan Makhija, Sugandha Garg
Nirav Mehta, Alishka Varde
Renuka Kunzru, Pratiek Babbar
Anooradha Patel, Jayant Kripalani
and
Ratna Pathak Shah

Associate Director: Raghav Dar
Casting Director: Pakhi Tyrewala
Line Producer: Akram Shah
Coordinated for PVR: Ashish Saksena
Publicity Design: Sukanya Ghosh & Nabeel Abbas (Epigram)
Promotions & Publicity: Nabeel Abbas (Epigram)
Media Consultants: Spice
Digital Intermediate & Visual Effects: Pixion - DI colourist – Jaydev T.
VFX Supervisor- Rajiv Joseph
Make-up: Sandeep Desai
Hari: Ayesha Devitre
Choreographers: Rajeev Surti & Longinus Fernandes
Costume design: Ashley Rebello & Nuzhat Khan
Production design: Aparna Raina & Malini Khan
Final Mixing Engineer: Ajay Kumar-B.R. Recording
Editor: Shan Mohammad
Sound Designer: Stephen Gomes
Director of Photography: Manoj Lobo

Executive Producer: B. Shrinivas Rao
Chartered Accountants: Bimal Parekh & Co.
Associate Producer: Kiran Rao
Lyrics: Abbas Tyrewala
Music: A R Rahman
Co-producers: Ajay Bijli & Sanjeev K. Bijli
Produced by Mansoor Khan & Aamir Khan
Writer & Director: Abbas Tyrewala