Garima Wahal and Siddharth Singh, a writer-director team known as Garima-Siddharth, have been working on Saale Aashiq for ten years. When the two, who were then developing television series, pondered why movies depicting intercaste relationships ended with the pair paying the price for their love, they realized they were onto something. We used to get upset over it. The couple dies at the conclusion of Sairat [2016] or any other movie about caste-based killings. Rather, we agreed that the pair must ultimately prevail. Real-life events should be shown in movies. What if someone had a strategy, though? Fiction may help with that,” Wahal explains.

In light of that, the two co-wrote and directed the film starring Tahir Raj Bhasin and Mithila Palkar, which will debut on Sony Max on February 1. It was difficult to sell the movie. COVID-19 arrived in the midst of it. In addition, Love Hostel [2022], a related movie, interfered. However, we had a unique pitch. “Our couple targets the families,” Singh says.

Wahal remembers that both celebs and OTT platforms were hesitant to join. Although it took them a while to locate their leads, they now only saw Bhasin and Palkar as the flamboyant pair. “OTTs were unwilling to address this. OTT platforms favor pre-existing narratives. Black Warrant, for example, was taken from a novel. However, they are afraid to gamble on creative tales. We encountered A-list performers, but they were hesitant to portray these roles. Mithila and Tahir were a welcome change. Mithila learned to speak with the accent needed for the part. Today’s actors like to remain in their comfort zones. However, she claims that Tahir and Mithila dared to be Shatru and Gudiya.

The CBFC permission came next when the movie was completed. In order to get the UA certificate, Singh claims that even though Saale Aashiq addressed the issue of caste violence, they purposefully avoided making it graphic. It was intended to get an A certificate from the CBFC. But in the end, we persuaded them [to get a UA certificate] by arguing that more people must see this movie. Teens should be able to distinguish between right and wrong. Singh chuckles, “A few edits were requested, some of which were even absurd, but none of which jeopardized the picture.