National award-winning filmmaker Nipun Dharmadhikari, who earlier helmed and acted in Marathi films, entered the space of Bollywood direction with Ishq Vishk Rebound that released on June 21, 2024. The film is running in cinemas with a lukewarm reception and marks the debut of Pashmina Roshan and Jibraan Khan. The film also stars Rohit Saraf and Naila Grewal.
When asked about the social relevance of Nipun’s film, he shares, “We started off with the discussion quite a few years ago, but the idea evolved over time. The idea of a rebound relationship came from Jaya Taurani, our producer, and on the basis of that, we cracked the story. I was the correct target audience for the first part since I had completed my school and was heading to college in 2003.”
A still from the film |
“The original one resonated with the youth. I remember buying a CD of the film and having multiple viewings with my brother on our personal computer. It was a fun film, and back then, there were less of youth films being made in those days. There was only Dil Chahta Hai that was targeted at youth,” he adds.
Ishq Vishk Rebound highlights the complexities of the confused generation. “I think the language of today’s youth is not being spoken in films. I could see that in the shows abroad, though. Besides slangs and lingos, what the youth is going through or actually feeling, that has been missing. The advent of social media happened in 2009 that really changed the lives of youth. We can’t imagine what life we had before that,” he states.
“I wanted to tell all of it without being overtly dark or preachy. In the original one, the characters go to a love guru played by Yash Tonk for advices, but nowadays, people look for online opinions, which is quite an irony,” he signs off.
