From a road trip in Spain in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011), to a cruise tour in Dil Dhadakne Do (2015)- the world of Zoya Akhtar‘s films is the stuff dreams are made of. Ask Kunal Kemmu about it, and he has a unique answer.
In an old video from 2023 that’s going viral again, the actor is seen speaking about ZNMD- and how aspirational it was. So much, that he couldn’t relate to it.
He can be seen saying, “Dil Chahta Hai aur ZNMD aayi, achhi lagi, lekin relate nahi kar paaye. Hum log kabhi Barcelona nahi gaye, aur yeh ameer bacche Melbourne jaa rahe hain, vahaan inki coming-of-age ho rahi hai! Hum kaise karenge, hum toh Mira Road ke hain. They get realisations after scuba diving and La Tomatina festival… hamari mummy ko dikhaoge toh pagal ho jaayengi ki itne tamatar kyun waste kar diye! Inke paas toh sab kuchh hai, yeh ghoom rahe hain, sab dukhi hain… zyaada aspiration ho gaya. I ended up making Madgaon Express with the same producers of DCH and ZNMD, and this is what my pitch to them was, ki mere jaise logon ka kya?”
Watch the video here:
Madgaon Express was Kunal’s directorial debut, and released in 2024.
The re-share of the viral video on an X handle had more than 9K likes and 1.3K retweets at the time of this article going live. Comments were a mix of support and dissent towards Kunal’s thoughts. The ones in his favour ranged from “Kunal khemu is a super sorted man!” to “This is real you.. just a normal human, common man.. u r being a real u…simple …I truly appreciate Soha IQ now …”
Some, however, didn’t agree with Kunal’s logic. “Movie fraud nahi hai tu gareeb hai isiliye relate nahi kar paa raha”, read one comment. Another read, “Interstellar bhi achhi nahi thi kyunki physics samajh hi nahi aayi hogi isse” One user wrote “Aren’t you married to a literal princess?”
