Imtiaz Ali Reveals 1947 Partition Era Details in Diljit Dosanjh's 'Main Vapas Aaunga'

'Main Vapas Aaunga', which marks the filmmaker's 2nd collaboration with Diljit Dosanjh, is set in the era after the Partition of India, which is the largest mass migration in human history. The event, which led to the carving out of Pakistan from India, led to displacement of an estimated 14 to 18 million people.

Talking about the nuances of the film, Imtiaz told IANS, "So what we have done is that we have had certain lensing styles and for production design. When you remember a memory, there is a cleanness, you remember fewer things than what existed. So we have used that in production design. We have cast faces that can give an impression of how these people could have been in 1947. Then styling them, because we worked with the team very closely, Shoma and the look team, and Sheetal, the costume team, with so many references trying to create those faces that we see in old photographs in albums. How people dressed up in Punjab in the 1940s".

The director shared that during the research process, the team came across many interesting findings which added to the film's structure.

He further mentioned, "What we discovered firstly in the research was quite different from what we expected. For instance, people were very westernized, more westernized than today, because it was a part of the West. They were listening to English songs. You will see that in old films. There's a certain type of music and hairstyle. So we went after that. And even the light of the memory is a certain different color. So we imposed that, we brought that out. That is how we have created the colors of the shirts because all kinds of dyes were not even available. So we went into the research and discovered what dyes were available. And we have clothes that were authentic to that period".

"So everything put together makes that one frame. And we've had a certain type of lensing when you look at when you imagine your own memory. And we try to create that by the use of lenses and by use of filters, we created some special filters for ourselves. We sometimes have even done this whole thing of bringing elements of the past into the present time", he added.

Produced by Sameer Nair and Deepak Segal of Applause Entertainment, along with Mohit Choudhary and Shibasish Sarkar of Window Seat Films. 'Main Vapas Aaunga' is set to release in cinemas on June 12, 2026.

- IANS