Dialing the clock back to 2011 and diving into the her hit road trip film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, director Zoya Akhtar spoke about the writing of one of the film's most discussed scenes — the moment where Katrina Kaif's Laila drives miles just to impulsively kiss Hrithik Roshan's Arjun — and revealed that it was Kaif's first on-screen kiss.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter India at the Monsoon Film Festival, co-hosted by Nilaya Anthology, Akhtar explained the scene grew out of a detail in Laila's character that had not been given enough justice throughout the film.
Laila is set up as someone who lives in the moment, but Akhtar felt the screenplay had not given her a moment that portrayed this impulsiveness on screen. "She's this person who lives in the moment and does things. We never see her in the film doing anything in the moment. So we needed this. We say goodbye, but we needed her to do something completely impulsive that kind of cements her character, and that's who she is."
Akhtar explained the scene's logic with comparison to fairy-tale archetypes. Arjun is the one who needs waking up — forever trapped in the grind of hustle culture. Laila, played by Kaif, is the one who can break him out of the cycle, and she does so with a kiss. "He is the sleeping beauty, and she is the prince. She needs to kiss him to wake him up."
The emotional stakes of the moment come from Laila knowing Arjun is about to leave. "She needed to get up and say, 'Listen, this guy is going, I may never see him again. But no regrets. I need to touch this boy.' That was where it came from."
Akhtar also revealed how the scene was Kaif's first on-screen kiss, and her response when she read the scene. "When I met Katrina, she had never done a kiss before, and she read it, and she said, 'I understand you need it for the screenplay.'"
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara released in 2011 and starred Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Abhay Deol, Katrina Kaif, and Kalki Koechlin. Directed by Zoya Akhtar and produced by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar under Excel Entertainment, the film followed three friends, Kabir, Arjun and Imraan, on a road trip through Spain.