Imran Khan had reservations about `I Hate Luv Stories`

New Delhi: It did not take much for Punit Malhotra to get filmmaker Karan Johar`s green signal to make `I Hate Luv Stories` but the debutant director had to make certain changes in the script to convince lead star Imran Khan.

Khan, who has had two flops in `Kidnap` and `Luck`, had reservations about the rom-com and told Malhotra so. Malhotra, who has been working with Johar for close to a decade, wanted to rope in Imran Khan and Sonam Kapoor for the film and both the stars immediately agreed in principal and the round of script reading sessions began. However, the changes suggested by Imran meant that Punit had to return to the drawing board. "That`s right, I did have quite a few questions around the script and Punit was happy to listen to them all and also acknowledge the points where changes were required to be made", confirms Imran for whom this is his only love story after his successful debut `Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Naa`" Malhotra did understand Imran`s point of view and took it all in his stride. "He was all by himself for 3-4 weeks and only after he was 200 per cent sure that his new version would bring both of us on the same page, he came to me," the actor said. Though there was quite some work to be done, Malhotra opted to fix it all himself rather than taking any hands-on support from his mentor and producer Karan Johar. "Yes, Punit didn`t go to Karan to get his script doctored. He made all the changes all by himself. He did the entire fixing and rewriting exercise. This was his very first movie and I can well understand how harrowed he was once he saw all these changes being suggested to him,"said Imran. As it happens in most of the instances, all was quite well eventually and once the script was totally in place and per satisfaction of all, it was a happy team that started working on the film. "What happened turned out to be best for all involved. This time around, the script was much tighter. The overall duration of the film too was just about two hours. The screenplay was literally flying and everything worked out to be just perfect," said the actor, who plays an cynical assistant director in the movie, who does not believe in love stories. Starring Sonam Kapoor as the female lead along with Sameer Dattani, `I Hate Luv Storys` has music by Vishal-Shekhar and is all set for 2nd July release. PTI