Tum Mile is a love story set against a very unconventional backdrop. What convinced you to be part of the project?
Emraan Hashmi: Kunal (Deshmukh) had approached me for this film even before Jannat. It sounded great in terms of concept; apart from being an interesting love story, it also had the flood backdrop which I believe was a major selling point. But at that point in time, I had a couple of films that did not fare too well at the box-office. I was consciously looking at a film that could be made with a moderate budget and hence, make it easier to recover the cost at the box-office. So we made Jannat and Raaz 2 with which we got the budget we needed for this film.

Soha Ali Khan: When I choose to do a film, it is not that I consciously want to avoid commercial or massy films. But my priority has always been the script and my role. Compared to a producer, my interest in the film’s commercial appeal is limited to my compensation. It was the same case with Tum Mile. The fact that it was being produced by Vishesh Films, who are known for marketing their films well and enjoy a good success ratio served as an incentive. Everyone wants more people to go and watch their film since a lot of effort goes into the process.

Working with a one-film old director requires immense faith in his capabilities. What was your first impression of Kunal ?
Emraan: I first met him on the sets of Zeher while he was an assistant director. At that point, he was still learning the ropes and we did not interact much for me to know his script sense. I just found him to be a sensible person. But later when he narrated this film, I knew he had a very commercial yet different sense of filmmaking.

Soha: I first met Kunal at a party where he was having a few drinks since he was celebrating the success of Jannat (laughs). He looked like someone who was very passionate about his work at a young age. Even though he was celebrating, he was already thinking of his next movie and it was an ambitious project. I was fuelled by his passion not only on that day but throughout the making of Tum Mile.

It’s not often that we see an unusual on-screen pairing like as Emraan Hashmi and Soha Ali Khan together. What was your first reaction when you found out about your co-star?
Emraan: I hadn’t met her before the film and I always thought of her as a sensible actor. (tongue-in-cheek) Not that I haven’t done sensible stuff but it has had a more commercial edge to it. But when I got to know her, she was very grounded and easy to work with. As for our different on-screen image, I think it has only helped the film.

Soha: I try not to make an impression of an actor just by seeing his films because I know that we are not the same people off-screen. I was quite nervous about who would be my co-star for the film since it is an intimate story that required the characters to expose themselves emotionally to each other. I was worried about a co-star’s attitude problem or punctuality affecting this chemistry. But with Emraan, I was immediately at ease. We are very similar people in terms of our sense of humour, patience levels and even the way in which we have been spoilt by others.

The film uses an unconventional platform to present the closure of a live-in couple six years after they have separated. Is what follows next equally unconventional? Do they resolve all their differences in 24 hours and get back together after a gap of six years?
Emraan: You have to see the film to know what happens. It’s regular in the sense it will have a connect with everyone who has fallen in a love and been in a relationship that did not work out. I can’t tell you what happens eventually but over a period of time, each memory adds up. That often happens and then there are people who conceal their thoughts and emotions with a mask.

Soha: They don’t reunite on the day of the flood, they just meet by coincidence. They don’t walk into each other’s arms certainly. The emphasis then is on the lack of closure since their relationship did not end well. And according to me, ending on bitter terms can haunt people for not just six years, but even 25 years.

What was the first scene you shot together?
Emraan: For the first scene, we were in a car that Soha was driving to the edge of a cliff. I was frightened for my life when we were inside and she asked the other guy, ‘Where’s the clutch?’ when it was an automatic car! I was really scared because I was on the cliff side and if things went wrong, I wouldn’t have the option of jumping out.

Shooting the film is supposed to been have quite a task, especially while shooting for weeks on end in a three-feet flooded set.
Emraan: I would just jump into the water as a warm-up exercise for the task that lay ahead. I used to be quite groggy in the mornings and often, I would hop on to this little raft we had created to move the camera. (grins sheepishly) I did ask Kunal for a water-scooter but we didn’t have the budget for it.

Soha: Yes, it was! I will never do an underwater film again. There was this constant drenched feeling after being on a wet set from morning to night. And just after a long drive from the set in Bhandup to my home in Bandra, I had to get into the water again for a shower. The only party that I attended during the entire schedule had me sleeping in one corner. The little comforting factor was my driver Abdul who would carry me on his back once we entered the set and drop me at the place where my director needed me.

How difficult was it to create the intense chemistry between your characters?
Emraan: I think the chemistry came from the writing. It was such an honestly written script; it described the way people fall in love today and then find it difficult to keep the romance going with careers demanding much attention. That helped us perform to a great extent. Even the dialogues had a ‘spoken’ feel to it. It was like placing a camera into a couple’s home and catching the conversation.

Unlike a lot of Vishesh films, isn’t this a ‘non-massy’ film with its treatment of live-in relationship, chance encounters and closures?
Emraan: I think it’s both, massy and commercial. Love is a universal concept and the deluge setting adds the shock value. At the same time, the way we have shown a couple living in Cape Town and then moving back to Mumbai is a lifestyle a lot of upper-middle class people, which is the multiplex-going audience, relate to.

Soha: I think the film does have a universal appeal. Its two main ingredients - a fresh love story and a natural disaster is something we all connect with.

What’s in the pipeline after Tum Mile?
Emraan: I am currently shooting Once Upon A Time In Mumbai with Milan Luthria. I am usually apprehensive of crime films because they conform to a routine treatment. Films like Satya and Company have become a benchmark in the crime genre space. And all this while, similar projects were offered to me which I felt, wouldn’t live up to the expectations set by these two films. But Once Upon… is a different take. It shows the way crime and smuggling seeped into Mumbai during the late 60s and early 70s. We have heard about it and read about it but never seen this era on celluloid before. Besides that, there is also a Mohit Suri film that deals with racism in Australia. And then, there is a very interesting project on Maoism that is still in the scripting stage which is also being produced by Vishesh Films.