Making 'Teri Meri Kahaani' was three times more difficult: Kohli

"It was three times more difficult to write 'Teri Meri Kahaani'. I wanted to connect these three stories and keep some of it in the past and still make it youthful and modern. I wanted it to appeal to everyone. So I have created humour and situations which would be liked by everyone," the 'Hum Tum' director said.

Kunal Kohli

Kohli says he chose the era of 1910 because he wanted to show a different take on the freedom struggle. Priyanka plays a Punjabi belle in the segment while Shahid is a complete casanova.

"Everyone takes a very serious approach to that part of the history. It is unromantic and non-colourful. My attitude to the freedom movement was different. Shahid plays a complete casanova. I thought it would be interesting to show a character like this in the middle of freedom movement," he said.

While recreating pre-independence India was tough, Kohli had more fun working on the disco era of the 1960s Bollywood. It is full of references to his favourites - Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar and Shammi Kapoor, the actors who ruled Bollywood at that time.

"It was tough but great fun. I was remaking an era where I was bound to get influenced by people like Raj Kapoor, Shammiji, Dilip Kumarji and Dev Anand. You will see a little bit of all these stars. We created make-up, studios and trams of that era."

Kohli is returning to the big screen as a director after a gap of four-years. He last directed 'Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic'. In between, he turned producer with Imran Khan-Deepika Padukone starrer 'Break Ke Baad'.

"The break was not planned. It was just that I was busy producing a film and it was as involving as making a movie." Kohli, who writes his own scripts, says it is more difficult to direct an own story as you can't blame anyone for the failure.

"Writing is a very lonely process because you are by yourself for a long time but I got help from Robin Bhatt for the screenplay this time. There are certain things that people expect from my movies and I try to live up to that," he said.u00a0