Karan Johar-Sajid Nadiadwala's 2 States Turns 10

A lot of the Tamil-Punjabi alliance in Abhishek (Kalank) Varman’s 2 States now looks like a precursor of Karan Johar’ far-superior Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani with Alia playing a Bengali instead of Tamil beloved to her Punjabi Significant Other Ranveer Singh in Rocky Aur Rani….


The role of the young Tamilian wife in 2 States was based on writer Chetan Bhagat’s own wife.

The film was adapted from Bhagat’s novel. Alia was asked to play her part as normally as the real-life Mrs Bhagat. Normally when we show South Indians in our films they have think accents, and if it’s a women from the South she will have gajra in her hair and will go ‘Aiyo yo’ every five minutes. Alia does none of that.

Alia was asked to strictly not do a Deepika Padukone kind of ‘bokwas’ accent from Chennai Express. Alia admitted it was difficult to not lapse into caricature while doing a South Indian character. “I was not allowed to be culture-specific in 2 States in my body-language or my accent. Yes, I was a Tamilian in 2 States. But I didn’t make a show of my regional roots.It is tough because when you are not resorting to speech and behaviorial props you have no handy tools to give personality to your character.Yes indeed, 2 States is quite close to me because the inspiration came from my own life. The key plot points are from my life but there is fictionalization and drama added as well. Hence, technically it is Krish and Ananya's story in the book and I think the film has captured that quite well.”

In K Balachander’s Ek Duuje Ke Liye there is actually a violent resistance to the match between the Tamil boy and Punjabi girl. In 2 States, a more modern take, the parents don’t gt violent. 2 States is about winning them over, not fighting them.


Alia Bhatt used Chetan Bhagat’s wife's dress sense and demeanour as a reference point in 2 States.


Bhagat was all praise for his 2 States heroine. “Alia is to put it in one word ,extraordinary. In every frame of 2 States she captivates you in her role as Ananya. It is a tough part, with the girl she is playing being an intelligent MBA student and a corporate type later. It limits the jumping around one can do as typical of Bollywood films. Yet, Alia captivates. That is her achievement.”

Chetan Bhagat was seen to be closely associated with the marketing of the film, standing up there with Alia Bhatt and Arjun Kapoor. How closely affiliated was he to this story's journey from his novel to cinema? “I was only involved in the initial stages, in terms of placing the key members of the team in place , producers, director and the main cast. I was consulted on all of these and we came to a consensus on what works best. After that, it has been completely director Abhishek Varman's show. He has made a wonderful film and credit goes to him and his team. I came on board for the final promotions as the book is popular and it helps the book readers becoming aware of the film.”

2 States helped ChetanBhagat to forgive your father. “I have had a difficult relationship with my father. In 2 States however the father gets a chance to redeem himself. The fact I could do that means I have, at a certain level, forgiven him.


2 States was to star Shah Rukh Khan. But SRK eventually opted out.And the project fell through. 2 States re-defines and rejuvenates the love-marriage space.Simple and yet striking,gorgeous and graceful, this is a film where we come away hankering to know what happens to the couple after the film is over.The film is put together with the stress on lightness of tone. From the clothes that Ananya and Krish wear to the spaces they inhabit... you won’t find them fuelling a filmy flamboyance into the narrative.

Binod Pradhan’s cinematography is the opposite of epic. And that’s the truth which these urban characters represent.Indian marriages , they say, is the marriage of two families. Sure enough ,when the shy repressed Punjabi Krish meets the spunky spirited beer-guzzling chicken-chewing Ananya, there is hell to pay from both sides.The thing about cultural stereotyping is that it very often does exist in exactly the forms that we see them exist in films and books. Chetan Bhagat’s lively novel from which this film is adapted, harps on the stereotypes in a way where we don’t see the characters as ‘types’ but as individuals who conform to a type.