It took only a phrase for Sanjay Suri to give his nod to Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga. “Imtiaz used this line, ‘Opening of the heart’. That is what I was hoping someone would make,” recalled Suri, referring to Ali’s Partition drama that views the historic chapter through the lens of inclusivity, not divisiveness.

In the Naseeruddin Shah, Diljit Dosanjh, Sharvari, and Vedang Raina-starrer, Suri plays a Sikh man separated from his family after Partition and spends the rest of his life waiting for them. Ali’s treatment, coupled with the role, was just what the actor was looking for.