With Saiyaara, Mohit Suri returns to his emotionally rich storytelling, drawing from personal memories and timeless connections between music, love, and heartbreak. He also defends casting newcomer Ahaan Panday, highlighting his years of preparation and emotional depth
Ahaan Panday with Mohit Suri
Mohit Suri’s Saiyaara hits the screens today. In a time dominated by formula-driven films, Suri remains one of the few filmmakers who continues to stay true to the stories he wants to tell. Known for films like Aashiqui 2, Murder 2, Awarapan, and Woh Lamhe, the director is deeply rooted in the romantic drama genre. He’s also aware that Saiyaara might evoke comparisons to his earlier works—or to others in a similar emotional space.
“For the sake of being different, you can't ignore the story you truly want to tell,” he says in a conversation with Mid-day, just days ahead of the film’s release. “When I was making Aashiqui 2, people said it was similar to Rockstar.”
The story behind Saiyaara
The inspiration for Saiyaara came from a place of deep personal emotion, triggered during a trip to Dubai with his wife Udita Goswami and a few singer friends.
“My wife was playing some of my older songs,” he recalls. “There were 18-year-olds dancing to tracks that are over 20 years old. I was surprised, how do they even know these songs? But every time I heard one, it took me back to a specific memory. It wasn’t the actor I remembered, it was the personal moment I had while listening to that song.”
He adds, “Music, memory, and love have such a powerful connection. That’s when the idea for Saiyaara started forming. I called Sankalp, who was my assistant at the time, and asked him to help me write the film.”
On casting Ahaan Panday
Saiyaara introduces two fresh faces to the industry- Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda. While Ahaan comes from a film family, Suri insists that it did not serve him or his film as an advantage.
“You can’t negate someone just because they’re related to someone in the industry,” Suri says about his casting choice. “But yes, did Ahaan have an edge? Maybe. He’s been struggling for seven years, grooming himself, and even after that, he had to convince me that he was right for this part. I didn’t cast him because of his family background, but I also don’t want to use that against him.”
Suri adds, “I’m just as close to Aneet as I am to Ahaan, as I am to Shraddha [Kapoor], Aditya [Roy Kapur], Kangana [Ranaut], and Emraan [Hashmi]. For me, they’re all newcomers at the time I made those films. They just felt right for the roles.”
On modern relationships in cinema
Suri is critical of how modern relationships are often portrayed in today’s films. “Most people making films about Gen Z aren’t even from that generation. They assume what Gen Z is like, and often end up underestimating them,” he says.
“This is a country where Bhagat Singh was writing revolutionary poetry at 21. Why do we look down on the intelligence or emotional depth of young people of that age group? They’re not into only frivolous things. They have emotional maturity and depth. If you give them honest stories, they will respond to them.”
Suri believes that heartbreak feels the same across generations, regardless of how it happens. “It doesn’t matter whether you break up over a phone call, a letter, or a DM- it still hurts in the same part of your chest, slightly to the center-left,” he says. “We’ve always had complicated relationships. We just didn’t have fancy names for them before.”
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