'True romance has vanished from Bollywood'

But his next will be a typical romantic saga because the director feels the much-loved genre has almost disappeared from Bollywood, thanks to romantic comedies.

“I am working on a romantic film now. I had planned it even before Pyaar Ka Punchnama. But I feel true romance has sort of vanished from Bollywood; so I want to bring it alive once again,” said Ranjan.

“There are two different genres of romance — romantic drama and romantic comedy. In the last few years, we have seen a lot more romantic comedies and that has sucked out the romance from Bollywood,” he added.

Ranjan’s Pyaar Ka Punchnama itself narrated the story of three friends-cum-flatmates and their life after they fall in love. Laced with comedy, the film turned out to be extremely entertaining for young audiences who could relate to the theme and narrative.

The director says his film was a “pro-men comment on modern relationships and their problems”, which appealed mainly to an audience between 15 and 35 years of age. But his next, the script of which is “almost done”, would draw in all kinds of viewers. “My new movie will be something everyone can relate to, because the feeling of love is universal,” said Ranjan, who feels Veer Zaara (2004) and Socha Na Tha (2005) were the last completely romantic movies in Bollywood.

“Romance is the most difficult genre to narrate. It’s not something with which you can reach out to the audience merely with good dialogues and locales. It’s about how well the actor reacts on the writing, how well are moments captured in the film. It takes a lot to build a story which convinces the audience that there is real love between two on-creen characters,” he said.

Ranjan says he has not locked in any title for his new film, which was reportedly called Saathi. However, he will soon announce the lead pair of the movie. One of the three pairs of newcomers from Pyaar Ka Punchnama will get a chance to work with Ranjan again.

After the new film, Ranjan will also work on Pyaar Ka Punchnama Reloaded, a sequel to his debut film. “I didn’t want to get into working on the sequel immediately after. We have a great script in planning and we will lock the idea soon. But for now, I would start work on the new film,” he added.