Aap Jaisa Koi writer Jehan Handa: ‘We want romance to make you think too’

Updated On: 02 July, 2025 07:20 AM IST | Mumbai | Mohar Basu

Insisting that rom-coms need to evolve from their predecessors, writer Jehan Handa on how Aap Jaisa Koi dissects gender politics and promotes a relationship of equals

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(From left) Fatima Sana Shaikh and R Madhavan in Aap Jaisa Koi. Pics/Yogen Shah, Instagram

Modern-day Hindi rom-coms are gasping for air. While the early 2000s gave us charming stories like Jab We Met (2007) and Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na (2008), today’s love stories often feel lost and clichéd. That’s why before assembling to write Aap Jaisa Koi, the writers had a clear mission — bring the romance back, but with an update. Jehan Handa, who has written the R Madhavan and Fatima Sana Shaikh-starrer along with Radhika Anand, tells us, “Rom-coms are not about meet-cutes anymore. There is a certain maturity that’s expected. We asked ourselves: What does love mean in a world of therapy-speak, career anxiety, and gender politics?”

Gender politics became a key factor when telling the Netflix love story, directed by Vivek Soni. Shaikh’s character is a self-assured woman from Kolkata, and Madhavan’s protagonist, a 40-something Sanskrit teacher from Jamshedpur. “In the past few decades, women grew up not wanting to be their mothers, and the men grew up expecting [to find] their mothers in their partners. Modern relationships require a fair bit of unlearning. We knew we had to address that in our storytelling. In a dialogue in the trailer, Madhavan’s character almost apologetically asks her to dial down her personality. He is a soft guy who has been conditioned,” explains the writer.

Jehan Handa