Rohit Saraf, Anand Tiwari, Simran Jehani discuss Netflix’s Feels Like Ishq, and what makes a good love story-Entertainment News , Firstpost

Feels Like Ishq, the latest anthology offering from Netflix, features six stories from directors Ruchir Arun, Tahira Kashyap Khurrana, Anand Tiwari, Danish Aslam, Jaydeep Sarkar, and Sachin Kundalkar.

While the underlying theme in all six stories is love and romance, they also generously tap into the territory of meet-cute. The genre, a staple of romantic comedies, is a scene in which the two people who will form a future romantic couple meet for the first time, typically under unusual, humorous, or cute circumstances.

In Anand Tiwari’s short Star Host, Rohit Saraf’s Aditya meets Simran Jehani’s Tara through an accident — literally — due to a bike accident. Saraf plays an ebullient yet clumsy host who puts his Mahabaleshwar home up for rent so he can save enough money for a trip to the Northern Lights. And when his first guest Tara (Jehani), who is on the brink of breaking up with her boyfriend, steps in for a stay, things swing from awkwardness to affection quite endearingly.

Star Host is sweet, breezy with an adolescent whimsy attached to it. However, the film comes alive with long shots of scenic views of nature — from the home situated on a hilltop, the recurring mention of the Northern Lights, to the unexpected stumble on a swarm of fireflies for our lead couple to marvel about. In an interview with Firstpost, Tiwari says it was important to showcase this motif, that love works best away from the humdrum of chaos, in midst of nature.

“I am a big fan of being in nature, being out in the open. I love the hills, and hence I too wanted to talk about my love for nature through this short. Also, these two characters had to find themselves. And I personally feel there’s no better way to find oneself than to be out in the places where there are not too many people. It does bring out a certain amount of romance with it. It is difficult not to fall in love.”

Tiwari also looked at the opposites-attract trope of enduring romances through the lens of nature. “We as writers took that one element of Aditya’s character wanting to see the Northern Lights, and took it forward in the storytelling but we also put a character like Tara who’s absolutely disconnected to nature. And with that extreme counterpoints which we usually find in love stories,” the director says.

Jehani on returning to screen and working with Tiwari

Jehani, who was last seen in Sonam Kapoor Ahuja and Fawad Khan-starrer Khoobsurat, returns to acting with Feels Like Ishq. The actor claims while she has a love-and-hate relationship with acting, it was the opportunity to work with Tiwari that attracted her to the anthology.

“I really admire his work and I think he is awesome. The story itself felt very realistic with regards to the messiness of first love, falling out of love, and then falling in love with yourself, and what that means. I could relate a lot of my experiences to Tara’s, and hence it felt very relatable to me. I immediately fell in love with the story. When I got the chance to audition for this show, it was over Zoom with Anand sir, and his advice was to just have fun with it. And that’s what I did.”

Tiwari on the importance of character development in storytelling

Aditya and Tara in Star Host are total opposites. While it is easy to like Saraf’s Aditya, Tara initially comes across as someone very strong-headed and immature. But once she begins to open up, it is effortless. Tiwari says though it was challenging to offer her character development in a short span of time, that was the most important element of storytelling.

Tiwari: “I think it is very important to give every character a graph. They should have opinions, which is different from the beginning till the end. And it is a big challenge to start a character from the point of not necessarily dislike, but a very strong vehicle because you don’t know if the audience is ready to be on that ride of learning with that character. Hence you need very good actors, and hence we were very very keen on Simran and are lucky to land her. The honesty in Simran’s eyes helps you to connect with Tara at her lowest. And it wasn’t an easy part to portray, and it is only because you connect with the actors so much that you go through her worst times and then eventually stay till her best. So it is a mixture of banking on some of your instincts when you write and cast well.”

Jehani: “We worked through Tara a lot. We rehearsed a lot. We had a lot of discussions on her motivations, and I think initially when I read her too, it was easy to put her as ‘oh she’s so fickle, so stubborn, so strong-headed,’ but you understand better only when you really break down on where is this all coming from. You understand that she’s lacking vulnerability, love, she wants to love herself, tap into love outside of herself, and you know, somehow everyone can relate it to on a level. So bringing in some positive aspects of that, humanising her, and taking in those complexities was very challenging.”

Saraf on his belief in the law of affirmations 

Saraf, who made his debut in Alia Bhatt and Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Dear Zindagi, has gained huge popularity with roles in The Sky is Pink, Anurag Basu’s Ludo, and Netflix series Mismatched. In Star Host, his character Aditya is a cheerful respite throughout the short. My favourite part is when he corrects Tara after she points out his ‘obsession’ to see the Northern Lights, claiming it is an act of affirmation. “You keep reminding universe of what you want to achieve,” Aditya says.

Saraf says he could relate to his character for he too is a firm believer in this principle. “That’s the way I have led my life so far. I am a very very strong practitioner of Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism for six years now. Their entire philosophy is about the law of cause and effect. So what you want is, what you attract, what you seek is, what you attract. Hence, the moment when the entire conversation about affirmations happens, it made a lot of sense to me because that’s how I go about my everyday life. I feel like a huge part of why I am getting these opportunities is because this is single-handedly what I want for the rest of my life. This is what I keep thinking about. So yes, 100 percent, I can definitely relate to Aditya.”

Tiwari, Jehani, and Saraf on the essentials of a good love story

We all are suckers for toe-curling, swoon-worthy love stories. Hence, I asked all three what were their top essentials while making a good love story.

Saraf: (laughs) That’s a good one. I think it is important for characters to be real. Often I see love stories that feel too good to be true, everything is just right and easy. The reason why I loved Aditya and Tara’s characters so much is that they both were faulty pieces. They both have their sets of red flags which made them so real and relatable. I found a little bit of myself in Tara as well. Hence I feel authenticity is very important. And Anand Tiwari!

Tiwari: Unrequited love. That’s my answer.

Jehani: Pretty much what Rohit said. But at the same time, a good soundtrack makes a good love story.

Feels Like Ishq will premiere on Netflix India this Friday on 23 July.