HT Leadership Summit 2026: Imtiaz Ali and Ananya Panday talk love, changing dynamics of cinema
Here's the latest update from the Bollywood world:
What does it feel like to be a filmmaker in India today? “It’s a delicious phase,” shared acclaimed director Imtiaz Ali , speaking at the 24th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit on Saturday. In an interaction with Sonal Kalra, HT’s chief managing editor for entertainment and lifestyle, Ali and star Ananya Panday discussed love stories, shifting trends, and the power of sometimes breaking the rules.
Adding to this, Imtiaz Ali and Ananya Panday discussed love and cinema at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit on Saturday. ((HT Photo)) Panday, 28, spoke about nepotism, safety on sets, her dream roles, and how “love is everything”. “I think Gen-Z is badnaam [notorious] for no reason,” she shared, smiling.
Meanwhile, There is the sense that young people do not want to fight hard for success, she added, but “it’s just our definition of success that’s different. Earlier, the sentiment was that if you hadn’t slogged mentally and physically, you hadn’t worked hard enough.” But success can now be achieved in so many different ways. “The way we approach success is different.”
Notably, Attention spans are changing, Ali noted. “We are all asking: What will work?”
As per the latest buzz, On the other hand, he added, distributors are seeing how varied the audience has become in its tastes. “The same people that watch [the movie] Ramayana will also want to watch [the independent movie] Pyre . Distributors know this.”
In further updates, This makes the calculation of what will work, and how, more complicated, shared Ali, 55. In June, he rolled out his 10th directorial feature, the Partition-themed love story Main Vaapas Aaunga , to widespread acclaim. Did he worry, before the rollout, that young viewers might not relate? He didn’t, he shared.
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India loves stories with big emotions, Ali noted. Rather than attempting to woo a specific demographic, Ali added, “We should ask ourselves: What is a story I can tell; and try to tell it.” Stop looking for patterns; this has become a unique obsession of our times, he shared. “Sometimes randomness works… the movie industry is trying to break the pattern.” Discussing his recent rollout further, Ali talked about the importance of exploring the horrors of Partition, particularly from the perspective of a third-generation person now navigating this history. It isn’t just that people of all ages respond to a powerful tale, Ali noted. Young people in particular engage with stories of “big love and big loss” because they see it in films and read about it in books, but do not have as much of it in their young lives. “They can relate to it in a way previous generations would not.”
Source: Hindustan Times