As Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga continues to win audiences’ hearts, mid-day has learnt that it wasn’t the only Partition-set story the filmmaker explored before making the Naseeruddin Shah-led romantic drama. Screenwriter Nayanika Mahtani, who co-wrote Main Vaapas Aaunga, reveals that both Ali and she were once approached by Shah Rukh Khan’s production house to adapt her young adult novel, Across the Line, into a film.

“During my meeting with Imtiaz in Mumbai, he told me that he had an idea for a story that was rooted in the Partition. By then he had also read my book on Partition — Across the Line — which, at that point, Red Chillies wanted to make into a film,” Mahtani reveals.