"I would have never written a story like this and that is what I felt when I was offered to do 'Cocktail'. Dinesh Vijan, the producer of the film, told me about 'Cocktail' that Imtiaz Ali had written. I heard the story and I was like why should I tell this story," Homi told PTI.
"Dinesh felt I will give a fresh take on this story because it is not a familiar territory for me. I did not buy his idea at that time. I told him I am not interested," he added.
But now that film's release is just round the corner, the director says, "He (Dinesh) persuaded me for a month. Then I actually realised that I am not doing this film because I don't know how to do it and I am scared of that. This format was not my format of narrative... Doing songs, there was nothing psychotic in the film, it was just a nice beautiful love story. And then I told him I am doing it."
Homi made his directorial debut with psycho-drama 'Being Cyrus' revolving around a dysfunctional Parsi family.
The story of Saif Ali Khan-Deepika Padukone starrer 'Cocktail' was penned by Imtiaz Ali, which Homi moulded in his own style while retaining the original plot.
On if directing someone else's story was difficult, Homi says, "It wasn't difficult. It was definitely a change in concept of telling someone else's story. Imtiaz had narrated the story. Dinesh and I developed the screenplay.
"That is when I started making all the moments of the film as mine. I started drafting scenes, characters. I pretty much stuck to the story that I was given. As soon as I made it as my film, the strangeness went away," he said. (MORE)