The director recounts how the veteran filmmaker bought Socha Na Tha's negative rights to secure its release, despite never having met him.
Socha Na Tha, Imtiaz Ali’s 2005 debut, was stuck in limbo for months. Producers couldn’t push it through, and the film risked disappearing without a release. Then, a quiet intervention changed everything.
According to Imtiaz Ali, who spoke at the Celebrate Cinema 2026 festival alongside Subhash Ghai and his daughter Meghna Ghai Puri, Ghai’s wife Mukta was on the CBFC’s Examining Committee. She saw the film during a censor screening and liked it. She told her husband to watch it. He did. And then he acted.
"He bought it at a price higher than its actual value," Imtiaz said. "He acquired the negative rights solely to ensure the film got a theatrical release." The gesture was made without any prior connection between Ghai and the young director. No deal. No handshake. Just a quiet act of faith in a film that no one else would back.
It wasn’t just about saving a movie. It was about saving a career. "I had never met Subhash Ghai," Imtiaz recalled. "And yet he did this for me. This is how people show kindness in our industry."
But the story isn’t all gratitude. There’s tension too. Ghai later signed Imtiaz for another project. The director backed out. "Sorry sir, main film nahin kar paunga," he told him. For a while, Ghai was furious. The fallout led to a trip to Mauritius, where Imtiaz eventually found a way to make amends.
The anecdote landed with a mix of laughter and awe. It’s not often you hear a filmmaker of Ghai’s stature described as someone who quietly pulled strings behind the scenes — without credit, without fanfare. Yet here it is: a moment of unspoken mentorship, buried in the margins of Bollywood history.
The film itself didn’t become a blockbuster. But it did get released. And for Imtiaz Ali, it was the beginning of something bigger. Now, decades later, he’s telling the story, because someone once believed in him before anyone else did.
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