Imtiaz Ali is an Indian film director and writer. He started his career with writing and directing television shows. He directed various shows like ‘Imtehaan’, ‘Naina’, ‘Kurukshetra’ and much more. He made his directorial debut with the movie “Socha Na Tha”, which did not do well. Then his next 2007 movie “Jab We Met” has earned a critical commercial success. Later he directed movies like, “Love Aaj Kal”, “Rockstar”, “Cocktail”, Tamasha”, and “Highway”.
Currently, he is busy with his upcoming movie “Jab Harry Met Sejal“, which features Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma. This is the first time when Imtiaz is working with the actor Shah Rukh Khan, On this, he said, “Working with him was like working with any other actor. You realised he is a big star only when you see the crowd around the sets. Otherwise, the way he carries himself and participates in a film, you don’t get the feeling that he is a star.” He added, “We both are from a theater background so it was easy to communicate with Shah Rukh. It was easy to work with him. He is a basic theater actor for whom the story and the co-actor are important. He is the only giving actor I have worked with.”
Imtiaz credits his mother for suggesting the basic idea of the film about a tour guide. He said, “One day my mom told me to make a film where I would shoot at different places so that she could come and visit these places. I said, in that case, I should make a film on a tour guide and there will be a girl in it.” He added, “I had met Shah Rukh sir and he was asking me if I have a story and I said I have one ‘cheap’ story. He seemed interested and said, ‘We should make this.”