Mohit Suri reveals why he chose Saiyaara over Aashiqui 3

Filmmaker Mohit Suri is currently basking in the success of his latest film, Saiyaara, which is turning out to be a blockbuster at the box office. Suri, who has earlier delivered the blockbuster Aashiqui 2 back in 2013, recently opened up that he was initially in talks to make the sequel of his 2013 hit starring Aditya Roy Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor, but eventually ended up with YRF. Anurag Basu is now directing the sequel with Kartik Aaryan and Sreeleela in the lead roles, although it will not be called Aashiqui 3 anymore.

Mohit Suri on why he stepped out of Aashiqui 3

Mohit, while speaking to PTI, said, "The Aashiqui 3 thing... it was too nascent. They (the Aashiqui 3 producers) had asked me if I would be interested in making it. This was the idea I had. But I don`t commit to something till I have a script ready. They were in a hurry to begin, so I was more than glad when Anurag took over, but I couldn`t rush the process," he said.

He further added, "Once there was no sequel pressure or of a star cast which had an opening number to live up to, I stopped caring about the commerce. And I just went and made a film. If I were making a sequel, or a franchise, I would be somewhere playing to a commerce like `Let`s make it better than Aashiqui 2. Let`s make the music better. I didn`t do that. I did what`s best for the film. It was such a liberating process."

About Saiyaara`s success

The filmmaker further shares that he is still trying to sink in the success of Saiyaara. He shared, "There are all types of people, youngsters, families, everyone has really lapped up this film. I am not at the age where I can go out and party. I did that a lot when I was a kid. I didn`t have children then. Today to see my daughter being proud of me brings a different kind of happiness."

Suri said that when his producer Aditya Chopra saw the rough edit of the movie, he predicted the movie would cross Rs 100 crore at the box office. "I didn`t really fall for that, I think. I was not too sure. I was still like, `Let me edit the film. Let me bring it down."

Talking about keeping Ahaan and Aneet away from the promotions of the movie, he said, "I genuinely felt that if we arm these kids with a story, a narrative, a song, then they have a better fighting chance rather than just the way they look or how they are photographed," Suri said.

He adds, "Honestly speaking, this is not a new strategy. This actually was the age-old strategy, which has been rediscovered. When we were starting off with Emraan Hashmi and `Zeher`, we requested the media to come and they never did. It`s just that today, even before they are launched, these kids are being showcased already and prejudged. We didn`t want them to be prejudged."