Shakun Batra directed Gehraiyaan was released on February 11 on Amazon Prime Video. The film starring Deepika Padukone, Ananya Panday, Siddhant Chaturvedi, and Dhairya Karwa portrays the complexities of modern relationships touching upon themes like infidelity, commitment, and desire. The film opened to polarising reviews with some people loving and relating to it and some unable to make sense of the film and its plot. Either way, the film has opened discussions on the complexities of human emotions and relationships in modern times.
Recently, the makers of the film including Shakun Batra and producer Karan Johar sat down with well-known film critics, some of whom liked the film and some who did not, to discuss the film. During the discussion, Shakun spoke about his expectations from the film. "I made this film hoping that if two people watch it together when that end happens, they both should have different feelings. I wanted that subjective reaction. Now when I am getting a subjective reaction, I can't be the one fighting it. So I get it. But I never thought that it would go from 0 to 10 and both at that level(indicating the extremity of the reactions). That surprised me honestly. That will take me time to process."
At this point, Karan Johar interjected and said, "I did prep you for this".
Responding to it, Shakun further said, "He (Karan) said that this can be polarised. He is someone who has seen films release over decades. I think he has a little more sense of how people will react. I was prepared for it. As I said, the intensity of it, I don't know if it’s social media or if people were waiting for something to be like, now let me teach you a lesson, because I have got emails abusing me saying - "Picture nahi bana sakta toh nikal na yaha se" to I have got an email from a psychiatrist really appreciating it from Australia, who found my email to just send me this."
