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'Saiyaara' was born in Dubai: Mohit Suri returns to heartbreak, music, and timeless romance
The Bollywood director opens up about crafting a film inspired by nostalgia, why real music outlasts the algorithm, and how heartbreak is universal across generations
- PUBLISHED: Wed 16 Jul 2025, 12:47 PM
- By:
- Husain Rizvi
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It’s not every day that a Bollywood filmmaker comes up with an idea for his next big film in the middle of a DJ gig in Dubai. But Mohit Suri isn’t your usual storyteller. Sitting across us on a Zoom call, he recounts a moment of unexpected nostalgia that sparked the first flicker of Saiyaara, his much-anticipated romantic drama releasing July 18 in the UAE under the Yash Raj Films banner.
“I was in Dubai, meeting an old friend. My wife was DJing, and suddenly they started playing all my old songs from Awarapan, Zeher, Kalyug,” he says. “But what hit me wasn’t the film sets or the actors, it was the fact that every song was connected to a certain emotion, a particular person, or a moment in my life.”
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That was the genesis of Saiyaara. Not from market research or trends, but from a feeling. For Suri, love, music, and memories are connected, he says, "it is a triangular relationship between the three, and I thought it is an interesting concept to work on."
Suri’s brand of cinema has always been synonymous with heartbreak — not just romantic loss, but the ache of separation, longing, and inner turmoil. From Aashiqui 2 to Ek Villain, he’s crafted stories that linger in the audience's emotional muscle memory. And Saiyaara comes from a similar thought process, only more suited to the newer generation.
“I don’t think I keep love broken,” he says when asked about his recurring themes of loss. “If there is love, there will be pain. If someone going away doesn’t hurt you, it wasn’t love in the first place.”
His last film, Ek Villain Returns, a sequel to the 2014 hit, was released in 2022. So what makes Saiyaara different than his previous projects?
Suri explains it as a taste of love which he grew up with. At 44, married and with children, he says, "I can sit back now and reflect on the childhood Mohit who was, at one time, looking for success, fame, power, and position. And at the same time, he was falling in love."
A new generation of lovers
Saiyaara features newcomers Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda, two fresh faces backed by the legacy and training of Yash Raj Films. But for Suri, directing newcomers wasn’t just about coaching them, instead, he aimed to capture real emotion.
“It’s unfair to judge raw talents, saying they're not emotional. Whether you swipe right or write letters, heartbreak still hurts in the same place — slightly to the left of your chest,” he says. “It's unfair to look at this generation and think that they don't have it.”
He praises casting director Shanoo Sharma for nurturing Ahaan for years and discovering Aneet. During the shoot, he adapted his directorial style to suit their unique strengths — “not building a wall with bricks, but shaping clay with care,” as he poetically puts it. "My mentor always told me that when it is a new person, you cover their minuses and accentuate their pluses."
One telling moment on set? During a concert scene shoot, Ahaan walked past a massive screen projecting himself from a previous shot. “He couldn't believe himself. That look in his eyes — I’ve seen it before. In Emraan when Footpath released, in Kangana during Gangster, in Shraddha and Aditya during Aashiqui 2. It is the same look. The moment changes but the look in the eye stays the same.”
Music as a memory
The music of Saiyaara — already climbing global charts — is poised to become the emotional backbone of the film, just as Tum Hi Ho once was for Aashiqui 2. For Suri, composing tracks begins not with marketing strategies but with the screenplay itself.
“The story always inspires the soundtrack,” he says. “A song can say what three scenes can’t. Some of my tracks were composed before we even cast the actors.” That’s how integral music is to his storytelling. That explains why some of the songs from his previous films top the Spotify heartbreak playlist.
And while today’s content often bends to the algorithm, Suri went the other way. The Saiyaara title track runs six and a half minutes — far longer than a standard digital-friendly runtime. Yet, the audience responded. “I didn’t follow any rules, I just did what I thought was emotionally right at the time. Now it’s No. 2 in India and climbing globally.”
Suri is candid about the difference between content that’s “scrollable” and stories that are memorable. “If you’re trying to match the algorithm, you’ll only be as good as yesterday’s success,” he says. “But if you personalise your emotion — if you tap into something real — you end up creating something universal.”
His advice? "Just make music that you think you would like. Something that touches the heart. And I think that will last longer."
